The Seattle tech world is starting the New Year off with some big news, including hiring plans, space exploration and VC funding. This is the Built In Seattle weekly refresh.
Augment to implement four-day workweeks. The Seattle-based company plans to offer four-day workweeks for its employees following its recent $3.45 million funding round. Augment, founded by entrepreneurs and technologists from Paul Allen’s Ai2 Incubator, is a software that will “supercharge” productivity. The company is currently growing its engineering and design teams and plans to use the fresh capital to launch a public beta. [Built In Seattle]
Pictory gained $2.1M. Pictory uses AI software that helps content creators make short-form videos faster and cheaper than they would with Adobe products or by hiring outside help. The company gained $2.1 million in seed funding that will be used to “aggressively expand” its sales and marketing teams. [Built In Seattle]
These Seattle tech companies raised over $2B in 2021. Seattle tech had a successful 2021 with 11 companies raising more than $2 billion combined. This is nearly doubled the amount of capital raised in 2020. Some of the companies that raised the most venture capital last year include SkyKick, Tanium and Highspot. [Built In Seattle]
SEATTLE TECH QUOTE OF THE WEEK
CBRE acquired Buildingi. Dallas-based real estate company CBRE acquired Bellvue-based real estate software company Buildingi for an undisclosed amount. Buildingi provides software that can help with space management, real estate management, project management and maintenance management in the workplace. The acquisition will help clients better transition back to offices and will provide 24/7 occupancy planning services and support from CBRE. [Built in Seattle]
Amazon partnered with Lockheed Martin and Cisco for space exploration. Aerospace company Lockheed Martin and tech conglomerate Cisco have made a deal with Amazon to complete a mission for NASA. The new partnership aims to put Amazon Alexa on spaceships for the Artemis 1 round-the-moon mission. Instead of humans, Alexa’s voice will be interacting with operators at Houston’s Mission Control. The launch will take place between March and April. [GeekWire]
