Madrona and WaFd back new Seattle fintech startup | Layoffs at Outreach

A new Seattle-area banking software startup spun out of Washington Federal Bank (WaFd) wants to help digitize consumer-facing products used by regional banks across the U.S.

• Archway has a unique founding story, originally starting four years ago inside WaFd. It later incubated at Madrona Venture Labs and just announced a $15 million funding round. GeekWire reporter Nate Bek spoke with WaFd CEO Brent Beardall and Madrona Managing Director Steve Singh to learn more. Read the story.  

A Seattle teen is creating a bit of turbulence with a website tallying the carbon emissions of the ultra-rich traveling on private jets.

• Akash Shendure totaled up last year’s jet emissions for 163 famous individuals from the worlds of business, tech, entertainment and sports. The list includes Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. Read more. 

Microsoft announced an update to Windows 11 with the ability to query the company’s AI-powered Bing search chatbot directly from the desktop taskbar.

• The new “typable taskbar” leverages Microsoft’s widely used PC operating system in its broader quest to chip away at Google’s dominance in online search. The move shows that the company remains determined to move ahead with its integration of the OpenAI-powered search technology despite its limitations and early stumbles. Read more. 

Outreach is laying off 70 workers, about 7% of its workforce, marking the second round of cuts the Seattle sales software startup has made in the past six months.

• The layoffs come amid a tech slowdown that has affected enterprise sales teams and slowed demand for sales software. In an email to staff, Outreach CEO Manny Medina said the company failed to meet annual recurring revenue targets for its most recent fiscal year. Read more. 

A new generative AI startup with ties to Seattle just raised $65 million from Microsoft and Google to help enterprises produce content.

• Typeface emerged from stealth mode and unveiled its platform tailored for businesses to create product images, blogs, social media posts, job listings, and more. The company, led by Adobe’s former CTO, is among a rush of generative AI startups attracting investment even amid a venture capital slowdown. Read more. 

• Otis, a spinout of Pioneer Square Labs in Seattle, is targeting freelance workers with a digital discount card. Read more. 

Temporal, a Seattle startup that helps companies write and run cloud applications, raised $75 million.

• Temporal makes money by selling a managed service to customers such as Datadog, Descript, Netflix, and Snap. The new round comes a year after the startup reached a $1.5 billion valuation. Read more. 

Turning players into creators represents the biggest market opportunity in video games in 2023.

• That was one takeaway from a discussion last week at Seattle’s Rainier Club about mobile gaming and the gaming industry. Read more.