GeekWire Awards 2025 revealed: Community ‘alive and well’ at annual celebration of best in tech

The strength of the Seattle region’s tech community — from the diversity of companies and innovations, to the connections between the people who make it all thrive — was on display once again Wednesday night at the annual GeekWire Awards.

A celebration of the leading entrepreneurs, innovators, educators and others across the Pacific Northwest, the event brought together hundreds of attendees at Showbox SoDo in Seattle. More than 60 finalists across a dozen categories competed for awards ranging from Startup of the Year to AI Innovation of the Year, Next Tech Titan to CEO of the Year, and more.

Noting the divisions that can plague society as a whole, Ambika Singh, CEO of Workplace of the Year winner Armoire, perhaps summed it up best, saying community felt “alive and well” at the event.

“We believe in each other, and we’ve taken that to our teams and to our organizations,” Singh said.

“There are so many people in this room that I have worked with over the years that have helped me in so many ways,” added Deal of the Year winner Gaurav Oberoi, former CEO of Lexion, a startup that spun out of Seattle’s Allen Institute for AI and was acquired by Docusign last year.

Now in its 16th year, the Awards, presented by longtime sponsor Astound Business Solutions, attracted hundreds of nominations and thousands of votes, with winners ultimately accepting coveted robot trophies.

The event theme “Game On” was a nod to old school video and arcade games, and Awards mainstay Rob “The Drunken Tenor” McPherson once again belted out a song fit for the night, singing about how AI has been a part of the games we’ve loved and played for decades.

“People today, they think that AI is quite new, but it was used for Pong in 1972,” McPherson sang in part (to the tune of the 1979 Buggles hit “Video Killed the Radio Star.”)

Keep reading for a recap of all the winners and honorees, and highlights of acceptance speeches (edited for brevity):

Startup of the Year, presented by Wilson Sonsini

Winner: Auger

The gist: Auger, led by former Amazon exec Dave Clark, makes supply chain software that unifies data, targets inefficiencies and provides real-time insights and automation.

Acceptance speech: “Auger is six months old now, but we’re moving at warp speed thanks to the relentless work from our engineers,” said Parik Savjani, head of customer success at Auger. “At Auger, we believe and live by the principle of ‘savor the summit.’ Tonight, we are savoring the summit thanks to GeekWire and you all, but tomorrow we’re back to the climb.”

Other finalists: CalmWave, Clearbrief, Oleria, and Yoodli. See this post for more background on this category.

Public Policy Champion for Innovation, presented by WTIA

Winner: Joseph Williams

The gist: With a career that spans academia, corporate tech, and public service, Williams brings a seasoned perspective to his current dual role as a senior policy advisor and economic development director for the state’s tech sector. As a longtime leader at the intersection of policy and innovation, Williams shapes strategies to keep Washington at the forefront of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

Acceptance speech: “Public policy and business interact far more than most people realize,” Williams said, adding that last year’s Public Policy honoree, then-Sen. Joe Nguyen, helped secure $800,000 for Seattle’s new AI House. “We have tax policies that affect every one of you, and we want to hear your voice. Get involved with WTIA, get involved with Tech Alliance,” he said, calling public policy an important part of helping the tech ecosystem thrive.

See this post for more background on this category.

Sustainable Innovation of the Year

Winner: Carbon Robotics

The gist: The ag-tech company builds weed-killing machines that use artificial intelligence and computer vision to recognize unwanted plants that it zaps dead with a laser. The Seattle startup also recently unveiled a self-driving platform for tractors.

Acceptance speech: “My message is simple — Carbon Robotics is the greatest company on the face of the planet,” said Jake Stallman, senior prototype technician at Carbon Robotics, humbly crediting the startup’s employees and engineers for its success. “Huge shout out to all the engineers. That’s how the bread gets buttered!

Other finalists: CarbonQuest, Helion, Modern Hydrogen and Tidal Vision. See this post for more background on this category.

Geeks Give Back (honorees), presented by BECU

Winners: Emer Dooley, Chaitra Vedullapalli, and Aviel Ginzburg

The gist: Emer Dooley is site lead for the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Washington, a nonprofit that runs startup accelerators across the world; Chaitra Vedullapalli is founder and president of Women in Cloud, which helps women-led businesses get resources to succeed in cloud computing; and Aviel Ginzburg is an entrepreneur and investor who is a general partner at VC firm Founder’s Co-Op and who helped create Foundations, a new community for tech founders in Seattle.

Acceptance speeches:

• “I just want to say thank you, because one of the most amazing things about Creative Destruction Lab is the convening power that the University of Washington has to have all these incredible people … and now more than ever, we need your support,” Dooley said.

• “Today is not the award for me, but for all the people who believed in access,” Vedullapalli said, asking the audience to raise their hands if they’d ever had a dream for themselves or someone they love cut short by lack of access. “If you believe that we need to create access for them so they can achieve their ultimate potential, raise your hands high. Look around. That is what we are trying to create.”

• “Foundations is a benefit corporation with a singular focus of making Seattle a better place to be a founder. But it doesn’t matter how hard we work if our state doesn’t help us,” Ginzburg said. “We can make Seattle and Washington an amazing, more equitable and better place to be an entrepreneur and build a business, but we all need to be paying attention, because that’s not going to be possible if the state doesn’t want us to.”

See this post for more background on this category.

AI Innovation of the Year

Winner: Overland AI

The gist: Founded in 2022 out of the University of Washington, Overland develops technology for the U.S. military that enables a human operator to control multiple robotic vehicles navigating off-road terrain, including in environments with no GPS. Last year the company won a two-year contract worth up to $18.6 million with the U.S. Army and Defense Innovation Unit to develop its OverDrive technology platform for the U.S. Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle.

Acceptance speech: “Our co-founders couldn’t be here tonight. They and the majority of our team are actually traveling for some important customer demonstrations, doing the hard work,” said Amanda Tsang, business operations manager at Overland AI. “Appreciate the award and what it means for the work that we’re doing and the awesome team that’s behind it.”

Other finalists: Allen Institute for AI, Enzzo, Groundlight, Hiya, and Rhythms. See this post for more background on this category.

Deal of the Year, presented by Wilson Sonsini

Winner: Lexion

The gist: Lexion was acquired by Docusign for $165 million last May in a successful exit for the company which got its start in 2018 after co-founders Gaurav Oberoi (CEO), Emad Elwany (CTO), and James Baird (principal architect) met at the Allen Institute for AI in Seattle. Lexion, makers of AI-powered contract management technology, raised about $36 million since its founding.

Acceptance speech: “This is for all the operators out there, all the entrepreneurs who know how hard it is, Oberoi said. “Thank you all for all your help over the years.”

Other finalists: Jama Software, Smartsheet, Stoke Space, and Truveta. See this post for more background on this category.

Innovation of the Year, presented by Astound Business Solutions

Winner: Microsoft’s “Majorana 1” processor

The gist: A new quantum processor based on a novel state of matter, Microsoft’s Majorana 1 provides a clear path to achieve quantum computing’s long-term promise of solving some of the world’s most difficult problems, especially in areas such as chemistry, biochemistry and materials science. Microsoft’s innovations are the result of a 19-year quantum computing initiative at the tech giant — currently the longest-running research-and-development program inside the company

Acceptance speech: “Something like this, there’s no way you can do it without a fantastic team,” said Chetan Nayak, technical fellow at Microsoft, who thanked his Microsoft team and boss Zulfi Alam for having his back. “As a small startup sitting inside a huge tech company, without the backing of three CEOs — Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella — no way this is possible. So I want to thank them as well.”

Other finalists: Lassen Peak, Lumotive, Starfish Space, and TerraPower. See this post for more background on the category.

STEM Educator of the Year, presented by First Tech

Winners: Fatima Kamal and Scott McComb

The gist: Fatima Kamal is an education program supervisor at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center, where in addition to helping create online educational content, Kamal supervises the Digital Learning Studio, which offers interactive, remote workshops for more than 10,000 students each year, and she helped establish a permanent, professional AV studio for PacSci. A science teacher at Seattle’s at Raisbeck Aviation High School, Scott McComb is also the school’s Science Olympiad coach and previously led the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics student club. He has served as the Highline School District science chair, and was named the National Aerospace Teacher of the Year in 2019.

Acceptance speeches:

• “The favorite part of my job is getting to work with our students and getting them excited about the opportunity in STEM and STEM careers,” Kamal said, adding that her hope is that students “get to have similar opportunities in their careers to the experiences and moments we’re having here tonight.”

• “When we talk about geeks doing good, we’re talking about, what does it mean to empower people to be positive changes in the world?” McComb said. “And so whether that’s kids building heat shields and then presenting the results to flight test engineers, whether that’s building solar powered cars, whether that’s building wind turbines — it’s about unlocking what students envision themselves being able to do.”

See this post and this post for more background on this category.

Health Innovation of the Year, presented by ALLtech

Winner: Cancer AI Alliance at Fred Hutch Cancer Center

The gist: Fred Hutch is the lead organization in an artificial intelligence collaboration to discover insights in data gathered by the Seattle institution and other leading researchers. The Cancer AI Alliance also includes the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and two Johns Hopkins institutions: the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Whiting School of Engineering. The alliance is partnering with tech giants Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Deloitte and NVIDIA for funding and technical support.

Acceptance speech: Brian Bot, director of AI & data science partnerships at Cancer AI Alliance, said the initiative “really speaks to the value of this community and how we can work together to solve really difficult problems, including making advances in cancer care and cancer treatment.”

Other finalists: Archon Biosciences, DexCare, Talus Bioscience, and Umoja Biopharma. See this post for more background on this category.

Workplace of the Year, presented by JLL

Winner: Armoire

The gist: A Seattle online clothing rental company, Armoire weaves a network of support within its workforce that extends to its customers and the broader community. Launched by CEO Ambika Singh, Armoire celebrates female leadership and “bosslady” power. The startup supports working parents, its benefits include paid maternity leave and free clothing rentals, and it encourages “creative side-hustles” for its employees. It holds public events at its downtown warehouse, including happy hours, clothing sales, and its first South Asian Fashion Show in October.

Acceptance speech: “This does feel like kind of wild for this to be a competitive award, considering the sentiment of it,” Singh said, calling out a childhood friend and others at her table. “The idea that we are all sitting at this table together, to me, feels emblematic of what GeekWire has built. It is not a surprise to any of you that we are losing community outside of these walls in this country. But here, it feels alive and well. My oldest friend, the people who have supported me along the way, there are so many of you. We believe in each other, and we’ve taken that to our teams and to our organizations. The reason this means so much to me is because when I hang it up, I just want to know that we added value into people’s lives, and that’s what this means. So thank you for that. I so appreciate it.”

Other finalists: Overland AI, Humanly, Foundations, and Acumatica. See this post for more background on this category.

CEO of the Year, presented by Baker Tilly

Winner: Read AI CEO David Shim

The gist: After selling his last startup to Snap for more than $200 million, David Shim and his co-founders jumped back on the startup train with Read AI, a Seattle-based workplace productivity company. The startup raised $50 million in October and recently released a new enterprise search tool. Shim’s leadership tip: “Get your product into users hands as soon as possible. Consumers are more forgiving than ever when a new product solves a clear problem or pain point.”

Acceptance speech: “As startup veteran for the last 20 years in Seattle, it’s a great honor to be named CEO of the Year, but I could have done it without the entire team at Read AI,” Shim said via video from Rio de Janeiro. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there in person, but I’m bringing productivity AI and Read AI to the global stage … to bring what we built in Seattle to the global community.”

Other finalists: Maria Colacurcio, CEO at Syndio; Ali Farhadi, CEO at Ai2; Anand Subbaraj, CEO at Zuper; and Robert Wahbe, CEO at Highspot. See this post for more background on this category.

Next Tech Titan, presented by Baird

Winner: Truveta

The gist: Truveta aims to aggregate medical records data from 30 partner institutions to link treatments with outcomes and underlying health. The Bellevue-based company describes its Truveta Genome Project as the “largest and most diverse database of genotypic and phenotypic information ever assembled.” Truveta raised $320 million in fresh funding earlier this year to push its valuation above $1 billion, making it the latest unicorn to emerge from the Seattle region.

Acceptance speech: “This feels kind of premature,” Truveta CEO Terry Myerson said about the award. “For those of you that are building a company like us, there’s a lot of hard work that goes on every day. This is incredibly humbling. Congratulations to the Truveta team that does all the hard work to make this happen.”

Other finalists: Echodyne, Pulumi, Read AI, and Statsig. See this post for more background on this category.

Thank you!

Special thanks to Astound Business Solutions, the presenting sponsor of the 2025 GeekWire Awards.

Thanks also to gold sponsors JLL, Baird, Wilson Sonsini, Baker Tilly, First Tech, ALLtech, and WTIA, and supporting sponsor Showbox Presents.

And thanks to everyone who nominated the finalists, voted for the winners and attended the celebration.