AI & Intelligent Apps
Why we invest
Artificial intelligence has captured the imagination of consumers and businesses alike as they reimagine how life and work will change. While Madrona has been investing in AI since 2012, the recent acceleration has highlighted opportunities in the combination of unstructured data, natural user interactions, and generative capabilities. Our experience in applied AI from a technology and business model perspective has built a comprehensive understanding of AI’s strengths and vulnerabilities and an understanding of the expertise needed to navigate a rapidly evolving landscape. Madrona believes the next generation of tech leaders will emerge from key areas, including application orchestration, intelligent applications, AI infrastructure, and AI agents at the edge.
OctoAI’s
Luis Ceze
on bringing ML to all platforms 
Common Room’s
Linda Lian
on integrating community into your company 
Runway’s
Cristóbal Valenzuela
on AI-driven art and lifelong learning 
Deepgram’s
Scott Stephenson
on revolutionizing voice AI and building a developer tool 
Highspot’s
Robert Wahbe
on customers, AI, and building relationships that last 
Unstructured’s
Brian Raymond
on tackling engineering bottlenecks AI & Intelligent Apps
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AnsweriQ applied AI to the challenge of customer support ticket routing and helps human customer support agents answer questions faster.Initial Investment2017AnsweriQ applied AI to the challenge of customer support ticket routing and helps human customer support agents answer questions faster.FoundersPrashant Luthra
Pradeep RathinamInvestment JourneyAcquired by Freshworks 2020Initial Investment2017 -
Lattice turned dark data such as text and images into actionable, analyzable structured data with human-caliber quality and at machine scale.Initial Investment2015Lattice turned dark data such as text and images into actionable, analyzable structured data with human-caliber quality and at machine scale.FoundersChristopher Ré
Feng Niu
Michael Cafarella
Raphael HoffmannInvestment JourneyAcquired by Apple 2017Initial Investment2015 -
Placed is the leader in location-driven insights and ad intelligence. Measuring billions of locations across the world’s largest opt-in mobile location panel. Placed provides the most comprehensive understanding of consumers’ offline behaviors.Initial Investment2011Placed is the leader in location-driven insights and ad intelligence. Measuring billions of locations across the world’s largest opt-in mobile location panel. Placed provides the most comprehensive understanding of consumers’ offline behaviors.FounderDavid ShimInvestment JourneyAcquired by Snap 2017Initial Investment2011 -
Smartsheet is a leading work management platform designed to empower teams of any size to create custom processes, programs and portfolios that fit the way they work.Initial Investment2007Smartsheet is a leading work management platform designed to empower teams of any size to create custom processes, programs and portfolios that fit the way they work.CEOMark MaderInvestment JourneyPublic April 2018
NYSE: SMARInitial Investment2007 -
Turi was an AI and Machine Learning platform.Initial Investment2013Turi was an AI and Machine Learning platform.FoundersCarlos Guestrin
Yucheng Low
Danny BicksonInvestment JourneyAcquired by Apple 2016Initial Investment2013