Seattle mints another unicorn | Amazon Care vets land $5M for virtual health startup

Speaking of shopping tech: Another Seattle company, Veeve, is expanding its checkout-free, smart shopping-cart technology from grocery stores to big-box retailers with a new attachment that effectively turns regular shopping carts into smart carts.

Amazon vets land $5M for virtual health startup: Erik Cardenas and Mariza Hardin, who were early hires at Amazon Care, are leading a new Seattle primary care company focused on the Latino population. Read more. 

Startup uses drones to re-seed scorched earth: Like a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, Seattle-based DroneSeed can take to the air and disperse seeds in areas that are tough to reach, helping to restore millions of acres of forest that have burned in wildfires across the U.S.  

GeekWire Podcast: “We have got to get on this. And I’m very hopeful,” former Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire said about tackling climate challenges and the role of leaders at the recent Cascadia 2050 Vision conference. Listen to our latest podcast episode.

Thanks for reading and have a great week. — GeekWire managing editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com; and reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com.