Bellevue startup Statsig joins the unicorn club with $100M funding round

New unicorn alert: Bellevue-based Statsig just raised $100 million at a $1.1 billion valuation. The Series C round was led by ICONIQ Growth (investors in Datadog and Snowflake ), with participation from Madrona and Sequoia Capital . It will help the 140-person startup grow its product lineup and expand its headcount by as much as 35% by early next year. Yep, they’re still five days a week in the office, and better for it, says CEO Vijaye Raji (above). Read more.

• Statsig is #9 on the GeekWire 200, our ranking of the region’s tech startups. 
• The company was a GeekWire Awards finalist for Next Tech Titan.
• See our full list of Pacific Northwest startup fundings.

New Microsoft hardware: The latest Surface Laptop and Pro start at $899 and $799, featuring smaller screens, built-in AI, and USB-C charging. Shipping May 20, the new Copilot+ PCs are part of an effort by Microsoft to target Apple ’s MacBook lineup. Read more.

Amazon updated its iOS Kindle app to feature a “Get book” button, giving users an easier way to purchase e-books on iPhones and iPads. The move comes in the wake of a court ruling barring Apple’s restrictive purchase practices in the App Store. Read more. 

Move over, cybersecurity — generative AI is now the star of the IT budget. A new survey commissioned by Amazon Web Services (AWS) says nearly half of global tech leaders are making AI their top priority for 2025. So what does that mean, exactly? Read more. 

Souped up spreadsheets: Seattle startup Row Zero raised $10 million for its software that competes against traditional spreadsheet tools from Microsoft and Amazon. Read more.

Hybrid work can mimic high school cliques. That’s one takeaway from University of Washington researchers who studied the connection between hybrid work policies and the formation of “subgroups” within a workforce. Read more.

Hot Links:

• OpenAI 's plan to restructure its ownership is changing again — pending approval from Microsoft. (Axios; Bloomberg)
• Madrona backed Recraft , a startup building AI models for image generation. (TechCrunch) 
• Seattle startup Pulumi released a new platform for managing cloud infrastructure. (Pulumi)
• Some Seattle techies are asking ChatGPT to generate an image of themselves, based on their previous chats. (LinkedIn)
• The editorial cartoonist who quit The Washington Post in protest when a cartoon featuring owner Jeff Bezos was spiked, won her second Pulitzer Prize this week. (Poynter)

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