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Moving faster than planned, AI drug developer Accipiter Bio quietly tops up seed round with $10.5M

Seattle biotech startup Accipiter Bio has raised an additional $10.5 million from existing investors to accelerate its work on AI-designed, multi-target protein therapeutics. Fueled by faster-than-expected progress, the company plans to use the new capital to expand its team and double its roster of clinical-stage drug candidates, with a growing focus on immunology. Read More

VC is changing dramatically — what’s a founder to do? 

Seattle investor and founder Nikesh Parekh argues that venture capital has split in two: record money flowing to a narrow band of AI companies while most founders find it harder than ever to raise. He lays out what founders should do about it, from raising VC to angel funding, venture debt, revenue-based financing, and bootstrapping to profitability. Read More

Startup Spotlight: MediaPact wants to reinvent digital ads for the AI era

As AI reshapes online search and advertising, Seattle startup MediaPact is building a marketplace to help brands and publishers strike direct sponsorship deals. Founder Lacie Thompson discusses launching the company, using AI to build without coding experience, and spotting a new opportunity in a rapidly changing digital media landscape. Read More

The greenest goodbye: Human composting and the science of becoming soil

In 2020, Recompose was the first U.S. company to develop the technology needed for the commercial composting of human bodies, disrupting a funeral industry that had been largely unchanged for decades. Now 14 states have legalized the climate-friendly practice and more than a dozen others are considering it. Additional startups have launched to offer a greener goodbye and all are looking to scale. Read More