That's just the short list of outside money that has poured into the region. Other firms that have led deals here in recent months include Bear Stearns, General Catalyst, Weston Presidio, Three Arch Partners and Mobius Venture Capital. In many cases, those firms had to outbid other investors in order to secure the deals.

Longtime Seattle venture capitalist Robert Nelsen remembers a time when it was difficult to attract big-name investment firms to the area.

But Seattle's venture capital community has matured over the years -- both in terms of entrepreneurs and financiers, Nelsen said.

"It is really three trends going on," said Nelsen, managing director of Arch Venture Partners. "One is high-quality deals. Two is more experienced entrepreneurs. And the third is that (Seattle) VCs are maturing as well and getting better reputations."

If Bellevue-based Ignition is interested in a wireless company or Seattle-based Frazier Healthcare Ventures is touting a new biotechnology startup, Nelsen said national firms will listen.

That's a good thing for Seattle-area businesses that are trying to become household names. Although Seattle venture capital firms raised hundreds of millions of dollars in the past decade, the community is still made up of smaller firms that are focused on early-stage deals.

Outside of Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures and Bill Gates' Cascade Investments, there are few firms in Seattle that have the resources to lead a $50 million venture round.

Attracting firms such as Venrock, which raised a $550 million fund in January, and Kleiner Perkins, which raised a $400 million fund in February, is necessary in order to take startup companies to the next level.

"You can't do it all locally, which is fine" Nelsen said. "It's not a bad idea to get some Bay Area money or New York money for future visibility of the company."

That's what Impinj did. The Seattle semiconductor company announced $22 million in financing this week, with new investments coming from Mobius Venture Capital, Unilever Technology Ventures and UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund.

Mobius is a Palo Alto, Calif., venture capital firm with more than $2 billion under management -- a deep-pocketed investor that can support the company's growth and provide insights into Silicon Valley's semiconductor industry. Unilever Technology Ventures of Santa Barbara, Calif., and UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund of Atlanta are the venture capital arms of two giant corporations, which could use Impinj's technology in an emerging area known as radio frequency identification.

Initially funded by three Seattle-area venture capital firms, Impinj Chief Executive William Colleran expanded the search when he hit the financing trail earlier this year. The 42-year-old entrepreneur talked with venture capitalists in Austin, Boston and Europe before choosing his investors.

"We wanted to look for a broader set of connections that can help the company," Colleran said. "You have to cast the net a little bit more broadly because you don't necessarily know what the market is going to be like when you are trying to sell shares in your company."

Because Impinj is a semiconductor company -- an industry that does not have deep roots in Seattle -- Colleran said it was even more important to go outside the region for funding.

"Silicon Valley is obviously a strong pull for us for two reasons," he said. "One is the heavy semiconductor knowledge that comes out of that area, and the other is that there is just a heck of a lot of VC down in the Bay Area."

The fact that Seattle-area companies are attracting money from the likes of Mobius, Kleiner Perkins and Advanced Technology Ventures is a good sign for the region's technology community. After all, those firms don't get involved unless they see big payoffs down the road.

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