Oregon startups raised nearly $950 million in 2025, with venture capital activity rebounding after two dreary years.
A big chunk of the money purportedly went to Agility Robotics, a pioneer in manufacturing and deploying humanoid robots. Agility has been widely reported to have raised $400 million last year, though the Salem-based company declined comment because it says its current funding round is still open.
Still, the National Venture Capital Association and market intelligence firm PitchBook included the $400 million in their tally of major Oregon startup investments. The result was an 80% jump in venture capital raised by the state’s young companies according to an annual report from NVCA and PitchBook published Wednesday night.
The organizations said 37 Oregon companies raised venture capital last year, with a median deal size of about $16 million.
Ambitious startups use venture capital to supercharge their growth. Globally, much of that money is pouring into artificial intelligence businesses that aspire to dramatically increase computers’ capabilities and change the way we work.
Oregon startups very rarely turn into big companies. But the revolution in AI is transforming industries and might provide the state, and its young companies, a path to revitalize Oregon’s tech community.
Agility Robotics, for example, makes robots that work in warehouses moving heavy boxes around. But in time it wants to expand their capabilities, making them smarter and more nimble so they can work in offices, homes and in healthcare.
“Once AI is actually applied to doing physical work in the world is when it really starts to have its impact, when it starts to actually become the entire future of labor and change our human interaction with productivity in the world. This is a big deal,” Jonathan Hurst, Agility’s co-founder and chief robot officer, told the annual Oregon Leadership Summit last month.
PitchBook says Agility’s funding round values the startup, a spinout from Oregon State University, at $1.75 billion.
Many other Oregon startups that raised money last year include artificial intelligence in their business models. Those include Portland data management company Hydrolix, which raised $80 million, and cybersecurity firm Eclypsium, which raised $45 million.
At last month’s business summit, Hurst urged Oregon business and government leaders to do more to nurture the state’s technology ecosystem and chase opportunities in AI and robotics. He noted that even though Agility started at Oregon State’s robotics lab, the company’s CEO, chief financial officer and chief technology officer all work in other states.
When Agility Robotics recently sought a new vice president of engineering, Hurst said, the company had to go outside the state again.
“We ended up with a California employee who was willing to travel here,” he said. “We couldn’t find anybody willing to move here, and we certainly couldn’t find anybody close to qualified in Oregon for this role.”
For Oregon to get a foothold in emerging technologies around AI and robotics, Hurst said the state needs to invest in building a cluster of startups around its universities and researchers. He said that takes a broad effort across Oregon institutions.
“This is not something that one entity can do,” Hurst said. “This is an all or nothing. All of the stakeholders in the state need to participate.”
