Boot up the robot trophies, it’s time to vote for the finalists for the 2026 GeekWire Awards!
This is your chance to help us honor the top innovators and entrepreneurs in Pacific Northwest tech — from Startup of the Year to Next Tech Titan, from Young Entrepreneur of the Year to CEO of the Year, and much more.
With 50 finalists across 10 categories, the annual GeekWire Awards are a much-anticipated and hotly-contested affair, hosted live from the Showbox SoDo in Seattle on May 7.
Cast your ballot here or in the embedded form at the bottom. Voting runs through April 10.
The event will feature a VIP reception, sit-down dinner and fun entertainment mixed in. Tickets go fast, and a limited number of half-table and full-table sponsorships are available, so contact [email protected] to reserve a spot for your team today.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll feature the finalists in special GeekWire editorial posts on each category.
Now in its 18th year, the GeekWire Awards is a premier event for the Seattle tech community, bringing together hundreds of geeks to celebrate innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit. Past winners have included Auth0, Tableau, Smartsheet, Rover, Remitly, Swype, Redfin, Zulily, The Black Boardroom Initiative, University of Washington computer scientist Ed Lazowska, Technology Access Foundation and many others.
Astound Business Solutions is the presenting sponsor of the 2026 GeekWire Awards. Thanks also to gold sponsors Amazon Sustainability, Baird, BECU, JLL, First Tech and Wilson Sonsini, and silver sponsors Prime Team Partners.
Here are the categories and finalists eligible for community voting (find details about each on the ballot below):
Startup of the Year
- Dopl Technologies
- Dropzone AI
- Elastix AI
- Loopr AI
- mpathic
Next Tech Titan, presented by Baird
- Carbon Robotics
- Chainguard
- Overland AI
- Stoke Space
- MotherDuck
Deal of the Year, presented by Wilson Sonsini
- Kestra Medical Technologies (Kestra Medical Technologies raises $202M in IPO, prices shares above expected range)
- Omeros (Omeros sells eye surgery product to Rayner for $126M in cash)
- Protect AI (Palo Alto Networks to acquire Seattle cybersecurity startup Protect AI)
- Statsig (Statsig lands $100M at $1.1B valuation, aiming to unify product development as AI upends industry)
- Temporal (Temporal raises $300M, hits $5B valuation as Seattle-area infrastructure startup rides AI wave)
CEO of the Year
- Aina Abiodun, VertueLab
- Karen Huh, Zucca
- Luis Poggi, HouseWhisper AI
- Sheila Stafford, TeamSense
- Tony Huang, Possible Finance
Young Entrepreneur of the Year
- Emily Choi-Greene, Clearly AI
- Caleb John, Pioneer Square Labs
- Kavian Mojabe, MediaScan AI
- Charles Wu, Orchard Robotics
- Bill Zhu, Pokee AI
Innovation of the Year, presented by Astound Business Solutions
- Alpenglow Biosciences
- PNNL
- Reveal Dx
- Starcloud
- VerAvanti
Sustainable Innovation of the Year, presented by Amazon Sustainability
- Helion
- IUNU
- OCOchem
- Ravel
- TerraPower
AI Innovation of the Year
- Avante
- ConverzAI
- Envive AI
- Spangle
- Synthesize Bio
Hardware/Robotics/Physical AI of the Year
- AIM
- Augmodo
- Brinc
- Orbital Robotics
- Starfish Space
Workplace of the Year, presented by JLL
- Allen Institute for AI (Ai2)
- Carbon Robotics
- DAT Freight & Analytics
- Humanly
- Yoodli
Read a recap of the 2025 GeekWire Awards.
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