Madrona Venture Group Announces Closing Over $ 500 Million To Fund Innovation From Day One For The Long Term

SEATTLE – (COMMERCIAL THREAD) –Madrona corporate group, the leading Seattle-based venture capital firm, today announced it has closed more than $ 500 million in new funds. The company closed two funds simultaneously, Madrona Venture Fund 8 of $ 345 million and Acceleration Fund 2 of $ 160 million. Both funds were significantly oversubscribed. The funds will be deployed on complementary strategies creating startups from the early stage mainly in the Pacific Northwest and from an acceleration stage, throughout North America.

Madrona’s Venture Fund 8 focuses on the core and sustainable strategy of supporting entrepreneurs that fit the founders market from the early stage and Series A stages, helping them grow and evolve along the way. of the company. Acceleration Fund 2 focuses on investing in teams that have found a suitable product for the market, typically at the Series B or C stage, and who value the Seattle mindset for growth – curiosity, agility and iterative culture. These new Madrona funds follow six portfolio IPOs over the past five years, including Smartsheet, Snowflake and Accolade.

Madrona supports their investments through successive funding rounds and takes an active role working closely with the company’s management teams as they grow, experiment, partner, hire and become. significant contributors to the technological ecosystem. Madrona works as a team – board members combined with investment and venture capital growth professionals, bringing integrity and a commitment to excellence to help entrepreneurs navigate the ups and downs of the business. creation of sustainable businesses. The company has added three outstanding general managers in recent years with extensive operating experience – S. Somasegar, Hope Cochran and Steve Singh. Madrona’s companies span many different technology industries including cloud computing, applied AI / ML, and SAAS, but all are decidedly innovative and customer-defined problem-oriented.

“Inventors and founders in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest fuel the economic success of our region and beyond. While it is increasingly possible for businesses to start anywhere, few places have access to the talent, understanding of market issues, and the ability to create emerging solutions like the greater Seattle. . Seattle’s mindset of blending curiosity, iteration and agility has proven to be the building of some of the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. Madrona’s new funds allow us to pursue our two complementary strategies: working with entrepreneurs who are in line with the founders market from day one to the full business journey and providing the same hands-on approach to companies that have achieve product-to-market fit and accelerate their growth, ”commented Matt McIlwain, Managing Director.

Incubate and invest in innovation

With Madrona Fund 8, Madrona continues to support early stage business creation in the greater Seattle area. Over 90% of the investments in Fund 7 were in seed stage or Series A companies, of which more than half were seed investments.

Part of Madrona’s seed strategy is to support the work of Madrona Venture Labs. Madrona Venture Labs, led by experienced founders Mike Fridgen and Jay Bartot, brings a team of operators to help entrepreneurs through the early stages of building a business. Madrona also supports accelerators across the region such as AI2 incubator, Female Founders Alliance, Ready Set Raise, Techstars and Pioneer Square Labs.

Bring knowledge and relationships at all stages

In 2019, Madrona raised the first acceleration fund for initial investments in companies that had found a suitable product for the market and were ready to … step up! At this point, companies need strategic partnerships and an understanding of market forces that can influence their journey, and experienced advisors familiar with go-to-market strategies and large-scale team building. Madrona’s close relationships with Amazon, Microsoft, and corporate clients, as well as the attitude of rolling up their sleeves, all factor into these investments. Madrona’s previous investments in the acceleration stage include Snowflake, Accolade, UIPath, Flexe, Clari, VNDLY, Go1, Coda, Trade Coffee and Rec Room.

About Madrona Venture Group

Madrona (www.madrona.com) is a Seattle, WA-based venture capital firm. With over 25 years of investing in technology start-ups, the company has worked with the founders of Day One to help them build their business for the long haul. Madrona invests primarily in Seed and Series A towers across the IT spectrum and in 2018 raised the first fund dedicated to upfront investments in companies in the acceleration phase (phases of series B and C). Madrona manages over $ 2 billion and was an early investor in companies like Amazon, Smartsheet, Isilon, Redfin, and Snowflake.