Seattle Schools Tap $2 million Fund to Help Families with Stable Housing, Basic Needs, Seattle Ranked 12th Best “Global Startup Ecosystem,” Can Seattle become a Financial Technology Hub?, and more in this week’s Seattle in the Spotlight.

Seattle Schools Tap $2 million Fund to Help Families with Stable Housing, Basic Needs

Seattle Times | Neal Morton | July 4

“Over the past decade, the number of homeless students has more than doubled across Washington state, an increasing challenge that falls on schools already trying to help children overcome the obstacles of living in poverty. “Because of their circumstances of living in shelters for many years, they have nothing but a bag of clothes to move into their new home,” Williams said of two families recently placed in permanent shelters. The Alliance for Education, a local nonprofit tasked with managing the Amazon donation, did not have a specific number of children that received support through the Right Now Needs Fund. But, as of the end of the school year last week, the fund provided about 8,000 individual instances of student support.”

Island Hop, Ferry Style: Day Trips from Seattle

Seattle PI | Christina Ausley | July 3

“The fleet of Washington State ferries (WSF) transported nearly 25 million passengers last year, according to its annual traffic report. For years, these diesel-electric-powered beasts have ranked nationally and worldwide in size, capacity, and influence. As a result, it comes as no surprise that both local Seattleites and city visitors depend on this floating task force for daily commute to work, or weekend travel plans. So, as the summer sun of Seattle emerges and the clouds begin to thin, we’ve rounded up a handful of day trips possible from the ports surrounding the Emerald City.”

Report: Seattle Ranked 12th Best “Global Startup Ecosystem”

Washington State Wire | Emily Boerger | June 28

“Startup Genome, an organization that aims to support startup success, recently released its 2019 Global Startup Ecosystem Report. The report ranks the best startup ecosystems in the world, based off measurements of “success factors” such as startup performance, funding, market reach, talent, experience, and knowledge. The report ranks Seattle as the 12th best global startup ecosystem, and in the top 5 for American ecosystems. Taking the top spots were Silicon Valley and New York City, with Atlanta, Barcelona, Dublin, Miami, and Munich rounding out the top 30…Broken down, Seattle ranks in the 2nd tier for performance (based off measurements of startup output and startup success), 3rd for funding (access and quality), 3rd for market reach (both locally and globally), 3rd for connectedness, 1st for talent, 1st for experience, and 3rd for knowledge.”

Can Seattle become a Financial Technology Hub? Why Some Tech Leaders are Banking on it

GeekWire | Todd Bishop and Taylor Soper | June 28

“Madrona Venture Group managing partner Tom Alberg has witnessed and participated in the rise of the aerospace, wireless and e-commerce industries in Seattle as an executive and investor, serving as Boeing’s principal counsel, a key McCaw Cellular executive and an early Amazon investor and longtime board member. His next goal: putting Seattle on the map as a global center for financial technology…The numbers: Fintech companies in the Seattle region raised a total of $703 million in funding in 74 deals from 2014 through the first five months of 2019, according to data from Seattle-based PitchBook. That was less than 2 percent of the $42 billion raised by fintech companies across the country over the same time period.”