As Ignite Northwest's 25 + 5 event approaches, we're reminded of how the Inland Northwest's entrepreneurial ecosystem has matured and diversified in such a way that it has performed well, overall, through a tumultuous few years. 

Its combination of persistence and perseverance bode well for the future. Our hope is that many Spokane-area startups can continue to grow in the post-pandemic era into thriving companies and, ideally, strong corporate citizens. 

As we've stated before, the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Spokane has been decades in the making, with its roots extending back to the Momentum economic development effort of the late 1980s and 1990s. At that time, one of the initiatives was to establish a funding mechanism for young companies in the Inland Northwest, something that was lacking at the time. Now, some would argue that our business community has a system that’s as sophisticated as any you could find in a community the size of Spokane.

Its resiliency has been tested in recent years, as venture capitalists infused mass amounts of money into new businesses in the first couple years of this decade but then became much more cautious in their spending as inflation took hold and interest rates rose. 

In that environment, the total investment in Inland Northwest startups fell to $75 million in 2023 from $200 million in 2022, according to data from PitchBook, a proprietary market data platform. Those in the startup community will tell you that Pitchbook data, while good, is incomplete. Even so, the amount of investment activity in startups has fallen here, as it has elsewhere.

But that doesn't mean we didn't see some big wins last year. As we reported last fall, fintech startup Treasury4 Inc. secured $20 million in series A funding, which was by far the largest amount landed by an Inland Northwest company in 2023 and among the largest sums ever secured by a young company here.

And by focusing on the past, we might be burying the lede. In the first month of 2024 alone, according to PitchBook data, about $20 million in investment had been secured, which is more than a quarter of the activity in all of 2023. Investment activity isn't linear, and a strong month doesn't necessarily indicate a strong year. But couple that activity with a positive outlook from those close to the VC world, and there are reasons to expect more activity in the months ahead. 

Investment trends aside, look at the list of young companies on Ignite Northwest's list, and you'll see plenty of reasons to be hopeful moving forward. The list includes enterprises involved in health care technology, green energy, cybersecurity, and a variety of other fields. It includes names familiar to the Spokane business community, like Spiceology Inc., and emerging companies that we're just getting to know, like nurse-staffing company Litehouse Health Inc. 

It all adds up to a reason to be hopeful for the future—and to celebrate how far we've come.