Pacific Northwest Venture Scene Struggles as Capital Flows to Bay Area AI Giants

Seattle and Portland startups face toughest fundraising climate in years while California captures 57 percent of US deals

The Pacific Northwest’s venture capital ecosystem is confronting a harsh new reality: while the Bay Area feasts on AI megadeals, Seattle and Portland startups are scraping by in the leanest fundraising environment since before the pandemic.

Seattle deployed $1 billion across 71 deals in Q3 2025, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor—respectable numbers that nonetheless pale in comparison to the Bay Area’s $44 billion across 648 deals in the same period. The disparity underscores a fundamental shift in how venture capital flows across American tech hubs, with the Pacific Northwest finding itself increasingly on the outside looking in.

“Venture’s bifurcation