Everett Company Topped Region’s 2Q VC Deals; Seattle-Area Total Down from Year Ago

Everett fusion-energy company Helion recorded the largest fundraising deal in the second quarter in the greater Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area, according to the latest venture-capital report from Seattle-based PitchBook and the Washington, D.C.-based National Venture Capital Association.

Helion in June announced a $465-million Series G investment round to accelerate commercial deployment of fusion, scale manufacturing capacity, and expand the company’s ability to deliver clean electricity to customers. The latest deal valued the company at more than $15 billion.

The Helion deal comprised almost a third of the $1.5 billion invested in greater Seattle area companies last quarter in about 78 deals. That was up from the roughly $1.2 billion raised in the first quarter in 77 deals, but far below the $2.3 billion from second quarter 2025 in about 100 deals, data showed.

Nationally, $143.9 billion was invested last quarter in an estimated 5,039 deals, up from $85.8 billion in second quarter 2025, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor for 2Q 20206.

Redmond-based Starcloud, which is developing space-based data centers, reported the greater Seattle area’s second-largest deal in the second quarter, raising $170 million and taking its valuation past $1 billion. Seattle-based Xbow, which says it’s an autonomous offensive security company redefining cyber defense for the AI era, raised $155 million in Series C financing in the quarter, rounding out the top three deals.

Another space-industry company, Starfish Space, a satellite-servicing startup based in Tukwila, raised an estimated $115 million, the fourth-largest deal in the metro area last quarter. Seattle-based Gradial, an agentic AI company focused on transforming enterprise marketing operations, took the No. 5 spot in the quarter, raising $65 million.

Other deals included Seattle-based Endurance Energy, which is developing subsea geothermal power, $54 million in a Series A, and Seattle-based Vedana Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing next-generation therapies for migraine prevention, which reported a $46-million Series A.

Commenting on the national VC landscape, Nizar Tarhuni, executive vice president of research and market intelligence at PitchBook, said in a statement, “SpaceX’s IPO was the first of three potential trillion-dollar listings by US VC-backed companies in 2026, and what many want to view as the opening of an IPO window. The scale of these companies is their differentiating factor, though, largely boxing out the rest of VC from public markets.”

“The pipeline of companies in IPO registration remains low, and broad liquidity hasn’t yet returned, leaving exit value very concentrated through Q2, and very likely through the rest of 2026,” he continued Tarhuni. “The same concentration is showing up in how capital gets raised: nearly half of all H1 (first half 2026) capital commitments went to just three firms, and managers with track records pulled in more than nine out of every 10 dollars deployed into venture funds. LPs aren’t spreading bets anymore — they’re consolidating around track records and brands, a response to five years of thin distributions. This year’s numbers will look like a recovery, but for most of the industry, it likely won’t feel like one.”

In a separate statement, Bobby Franklin, president and CEO at NVCA, said, “The second quarter reinforced an emerging trend: capital is flowing back into American innovation with real force. Investment activity is picking up, fundraising is improving, and there are early signs the IPO market is beginning to reopen. AI continues to drive much of the market’s momentum, even as investment and fundraising remain concentrated across a relatively small number of companies and funds. Healthier IPO and M&A markets will be critical to unlocking value, restoring liquidity, broadening access to capital, and supporting the next generation of American innovators across the country.”