Aug 27, 2021

Vouched

Baird

Cavens

Seattle-based Vouched, a developer of AI-powered identity verification services, closed a $4.5 million funding round. The financing was led by digital tech entrepreneur Darrell Cavens, alongside strategic investments from both banking and legal services firms, including Mark Vadon of Bankers Healthcare Group. The capital will be used for business growth. John Baird is co-founder and CEO of Vouched. To date, Vouched has verified the identities of nearly 3 million individuals worldwide and serves more than 150 companies in industries including banking, fintech, health care, telemedicine, legal, car rentals, travel/hotel, ecommerce, art purchasing, wire transfers, and employment recruiting and screening.

Kymeta

Redmond-based Kymeta entered into a technology and business development partnership with Comtech Telecommunications. Kymeta is a satellite communications company and Comtech provides next-generation 911 emergency systems and secure wireless communications technologies. As a result, Kymeta has diversified its service offerings via network compatibility with Comtech's UHP-200 universal satellite router and the Kymeta u8 terminal, and Comtech has expanded distribution of its recently acquired UHP product line and strengthened its offerings of integrated VSAT solutions. Comtech is headquartered in Melville, New York, with customers in over 100 countries.

Sila

Sila was named one of the 2021 Best Places to Work in Financial Technology by Arizent, publisher of several business-to-business publications. Sila has around 43 employees, with about half of them living in and around Portland and Corvallis, where the firm has offices. The other half are distributed over the U.S. Sila is a fintech software platform that provides payment infrastructure as a service, allowing companies to integrate with the U.S. banking system and blockchain in full compliance with U.S. regulations. The firm recently received $13 million in Series A funding led by Revolution Ventures.

Aug 26, 2021

Mason

Jim Xiao

Nancy Xiao

Nancy Xiao was appointed chief executive officer of Seattle-based Mason. Xiao is a current board member and has served as Mason's president since she joined the company in October 2019. Jim Xiao, Mason's founder, has moved from CEO to president. He will lead business development and strategy. Before joining Mason, Nancy Xiao drove the product marketing function for emerging technologies including Parse, the first backend-as-a-service platform for mobile app developers, which was acquired by Facebook in 2013. While working at Facebook, she led product development for Oculus Home, the virtual reality portal and community hub for the Oculus Rift and Quest platforms. Mason offers a platform for developing and delivering dedicated smart devices.

Visus Therapeutics

Visus Therapeutics, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing ophthalmic therapies, appointed Tracy Valorie and Dwight Moxie to its board. Valorie brings 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries spanning strategic business counsel, commercial development, brand and customer marketing, and clinical development and research. She previously was senior vice president and general manager of US Ophthalmology Rx and Surgical at Bausch + Lomb. Prior to that, she held numerous leadership positions at Pfizer. Moxie is the general counsel, senior vice president and corporate secretary at Revance Therapeutics. He leads legal, governance and compliance for the company, and brings more than two decades of experience in the biopharmaceutical and health care sectors. Visus has offices in Seattle and Orange County, California.

University of Washington

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing researchers at the University of Washington and Portland State University with $1.1 million for two projects to help school districts and communities reduce exposure to harmful pollution from wildland fire smoke. The universities are among nine institutions across the nation receiving a total of $7 million under EPA's Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program for research to address health risks from wildland fire smoke. PSU will receive $547,899 to conduct field and laboratory measurements to better quantify transport of particulate matter from outdoor to indoor air. The UW will receive $548,000 to work with 10 schools in Washington to evaluate the effectiveness of classroom-based portable air cleaners to reduce respiratory health effects associated with wildfire particulate matter exposure. The goal of EPA's STAR program is to stimulate and support scientific and engineering research that advances EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment.

Pemco

Throughout the end of July and early August, online donations from local businesses, organizations and individuals as part of Pemco Mutual Insurance's fourth annual Supply Surge resulted in nearly 200,000 school supplies for students across Washington and Oregon. Items donated included backpacks, binders, notebooks, pencils and many other necessities. The supplies were donated to 13 middle and high schools across the state. In Lynnwood, Spokane and Portland, local donors and the Pemco offices collected more than 41,200 items, which will benefit middle and high schools with high homeless student populations.

Washington joins CBRE multifamily team

Washington

CBRE announced that Mark Washington has joined its capital markets team. He'll be an executive vice president, with a focus on institutional multifamily sales. He makes the move from Eastdil Secured. CBRE's John R. Miller said in a statement, “Mark is a tremendous addition to our team of multifamily experts in the Pacific Northwest, and we look forward to the role he will play in further elevating our investment sales business throughout the region.” In that capacity, he'll work alongside Eli Hanacek and Jon Hallgrimson.

Learn to cook with Ethan Stowell

Stowell

You read that correctly. The Urban Land Institute is teaming up with local chef and food entrepreneur Ethan Stowell, who'll lead an event dubbed “How to Cook Through a Pandemic.” The Sept. 16 gathering will take place at 4 p.m. in his new Victor Tavern, within the Via6 apartment tower at 2121 Sixth Ave. (across the street from the Amazon Spheres). The new restaurant occupies the space that was formerly home to TanakaSan. Details and registration: northwest.uli.org.