Oregon AI Startups Raise Over $120M
Oregon's startup scene is thriving, with a major focus on AI. Four local companies just closed huge Series A rounds: Gambit Security raised $61M for an AI-native resilience platform, Harper Insure secured $47M for an AI insurance brokerage, Nixtla raised $16M for time series intelligence, and Pluvo raised $5M for real-time finance AI.
The recent surge in funding for Oregon's AI startups reflects a broader trend of significant investment in the state's technology sector, often dubbed the "Silicon Forest." This environment is supported by a growing number of incubators, venture capital firms, and the presence of major tech companies like Intel, which has invested over $65 billion in its Oregon operations. Gambit Security, which raised the largest round at $61 million, was founded by veterans of Israel's elite Unit 8200 intelligence-gathering division. Their AI-native platform moves beyond traditional backups by continuously validating a company's entire technology stack against threats, aiming to make enterprise resilience a real-time, automated capability. The funding was co-led by Spark Capital and Kleiner Perkins. Harper Insure, securing $47 million, was co-founded by Dakotah Rice and Tushar Nair, who previously founded Poolit. Rice's motivation for starting the AI-powered insurance brokerage stems from his family's struggles with obtaining insurance for their small businesses. The company acts as a fully autonomous, licensed agency, using AI to handle tasks like routing submissions and managing quotes to connect small and mid-sized businesses with over 160 carriers. Nixtla, with its $16 million in new funding, is commercializing its popular open-source time-series forecasting libraries. Founded by Max Mergenthaler, the company has also developed TimeGPT, a generative AI model specifically for time-series data that can be used for forecasting in sectors like energy and logistics. The Series A round was led by Energize Capital. Pluvo, which closed a $5 million seed round, is developing an AI-powered financial planning assistant to help businesses move beyond spreadsheets. Co-founded by CEO Alex Labrèche and COO Seb Fallenbuchl, Pluvo's platform uses "agentic AI" to analyze financial models and test assumptions in real-time. The funding round included participation from Andreessen Horowitz's a16z speedrun program.
