Oct 20, 2021

Fashwire

Seattle-based Fashwire, the parent company of web-based platforms FashWire and GlossWire, won first place in the category of Women in Business at the International Trade Council's Annual Go Global Awards ceremony. Founded in 2018 by Kimberly Carney, FashWire's global platform, a two-sided marketplace, provides over 400 fashion designers from more than 35 countries insight into consumer shopping patterns through trending data and real-time actionable insights in the ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories space. Fashwire expanded into the beauty industry with the launch of GlossWire in February, which connects brands and consumers through the same data-driven platform. The International Trade Council's Go Global Awards celebrate organizations that drive the global economy through their innovations, technologies and strategies.

CaliBurger

CaliBurger, a Cali Group portfolio company, announced that it will open its first restaurant since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020 in the greater Seattle area, the third in the Seattle market. The restaurant will be at 18336 Aurora Ave. N. in Shoreline and will feature Flippy, an autonomous robot system taking over the work of an entire fry station. While the Shoreline store will use Flippy to initially cook french fries, Flippy can also cook chicken breasts and tenders, onion rings and sweet potato waffle fries. The system's image recognition technology allows for real-time quality control to prevent any food quality errors during the cooking process. Developed by Miso Robotics, the technology that brings Flippy to life has been in development for almost five years and represents over a quarter million labor hours of engineering time devoted to building the base software, intelligence and platforms. The new CaliBurger restaurant will also have PopID's latest face-based ordering and payment system.

Hexion

Ohio-based Hexion recently expanded its Portland manufacturing site to support its ArmorBuilt Wildfire Shield product. The addition recently came online after an earlier expansion in the first quarter of the year. ArmorBuilt Wildfire Shield offers a durable, fire mitigation safeguard for securing critical infrastructure. ArmorBuilt has also passed an industry approved wildfire simulation burn test for fire resistance. With its insulating and self-healing properties, ArmorBuilt provides a burn-prevention material for a variety of industries that are potentially affected by fires, including wildfires.

Oct 19, 2021

Low Income Investment Fund

The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) named Emma Chavez as its new market director of the western region. Based in the Los Angeles office, Chavez is responsible for lending activities in California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado. Her work includes developing, managing and supporting local funder relationships. Chavez has 20 years of experience in affordable housing finance and development. Prior to this new role, she was vice president of community development lending at Boston Private Bank. Early in her career, she was a loan officer for LIIF and has also served as a lender at the California Community Reinvestment Corporation and the Chicago Community Loan Fund. LIIF invests in projects that have high social value but lack access to traditional financial institutions. Since 1984, LIIF has deployed more than $2.9 billion to serve more than 2 million people in communities across the country from its five offices.

Amazon

Amazon announced that 150,000 seasonal jobs are now available across the United States. Amazon jobs in the U.S., including seasonal roles, have an average starting pay of $18 per hour. Jobs in Amazon's operations network include stowing, picking, packing, shipping and more. New hires will be trained and all facilities follow strict COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Jobs are available in hundreds of cities and towns across America. Washington and Oregon are among the states with the greatest number of seasonal roles available. Interested candidates can get more details at http://www.amazon.com/apply.

Spice AI

Spice AI, a startup enabling developers to integrate AI into their applications, announced funding of $1 million from leading AI-focused venture and angel investors. Founded by Luke Kim and Phillip LeBlanc, Spice AI takes a developer-first approach to building intelligent apps. Spice AI's first release and namesake, Spice.ai, is an open-source project that enables developers to access machine learning tools in minutes instead of months. Spice AI is backed and advised by a number of tech leaders, including Nat Friedman (CEO of GitHub) and Mark Russinovich (CTO of Microsoft Azure), together with institutional investors Madrona Venture Group, Picus Capital, TA Ventures, Elysium Venture Capital, Cardinia Ventures and Founder's Co-op. Spice AI will use the funding to build its core team in the Pacific Northwest and is currently hiring full-time software and machine-learning engineers.

Oct 15, 2021

Summit Bank

Hemmings

In Eugene, Oregon, Summit Bank promoted Chris Hemmings to chief operating officer. Hemmings has been with the bank since 2008 and has served in various capacities, most recently as senior vice president and chief administrative officer, and before that as controller. He currently is chair of the bank's operations committee, which evaluates and guides efforts that support strategic initiatives, and is chair of the bank's compliance committee. Summit has offices in Eugene/Springfield, Central Oregon and the Portland area.

CLIPr

In Seattle, video analysis and management company CLIPr appointed Diego Piacentini to its advisory board. Piacentini has been a technology business leader for over 30 years. He is currently a senior advisor at KKR and a non-executive member of the Economist Group's board. Prior to this, he was senior vice president of international consumer business at Amazon for over 16 years, and the general manager of Apple EMEA during its transformative years. CLIPr uses AI and machine learning to index video content to help people save time and reduce fatigue when viewing videos.

Floor & Decor

Floor & Decor, a specialty retailer of hard-surface flooring, will open a store next week in Tacoma at 7601 S. Hosmer St. The 78,000-square-foot warehouse store and design center will be the Atlanta-based company's third store in the Seattle market. It will be managed by Makinzie Saxey, whose title is chief executive merchant. The grand opening will be held Oct. 21 and a $5,000 floor makeover sweepstakes will run through Nov. 20. Register at http://www.floormakeovertacoma.com. Contractors, designers and Realtors can privately tour the store through Nov. 3 and register to win a Chevrolet Colorado truck and other prizes. To schedule a tour, text 253PRO to 26786.

Mister Car Wash

Mister Car Wash opened at 1035 N. Stratford Road in Moses Lake, its ninth location in the Tri-Cities area. It is open 7:30 a.m.-7 p.m. all days except Sunday, when it's open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. The company is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.