We are pleased to announce the closing our Madrona Venture Fund 8 and Madrona Acceleration Fund 2. The innovation here is staggering and these funds will go to work for founders and teams from the earliest stages through acceleration stage. This is the largest raise in Seattle for technology startups and demonstrates the acceleration of the region’s success in driving the global innovation networks.
We are excited for 2021 and what lies ahead!
Madrona Venture Group, the leading venture capital firm based in Seattle announced today the closing of more than $500 million in new funds. The firm closed two funds simultaneously, Madrona Venture Fund 8 of $345 million and Acceleration Fund 2 of $160 million. Both funds were heavily over-subscribed. The funds will be deployed on complementary strategies building startups from the seed stage primarily in the Pacific Northwest and from an acceleration stage, throughout North America.
Madrona’s Venture Fund 8 is focused on the core and lasting strategy of supporting entrepreneurs who have founder-market fit from seed and Series A stages, helping them build and scale throughout the company journey. Acceleration Fund 2 is focused on investing in teams that have found product-market fit, generally Series B or C stage, and value the Seattle mindset for growth – curiosity, agility and an iterative culture. These new Madrona funds come on the heels of six portfolio IPOs in the last five years including Smartsheet, Snowflake and Accolade.
Madrona supports their investments through successive rounds of funding and takes an active role working closely with company leadership teams as they grow, experiment, build partnerships, hire and become meaningful contributors to the tech ecosystem. Madrona works as a team – board members combined with the investment and venture growth professionals, bringing integrity and a commitment to excellence to helping entrepreneurs navigate the ups and downs of building lasting companies. The firm has added three exceptional Managing Directors the past few years with deep operating experiences – S. Somasegar, Hope Cochran and Steve Singh. Madrona companies cover many different technology sectors including cloud computing, applied AI/ML and SAAS, but all are boldly innovative and focused on customer defined problems.
“Inventors and founders in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest are fueling the economic success of our region and beyond. While it is increasingly possible for companies to be built anywhere, few places have access to talent, understanding of market problems and the ability to build emerging solutions like greater Seattle. The Seattle Mindset, combining curiosity, iteration and agility, has proven to build some of the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. Madrona’s new funds enable us to continue our two complementary strategies – working with entrepreneurs who have founder-market fit from Day One through the full company journey and providing that same hands-on approach to companies that have reached product-market fit and are accelerating their growth,” commented Matt McIlwain, Managing Director.
Incubating and Investing in Innovation
With Madrona Fund 8, Madrona continues to support early-stage company formation across the greater Seattle region. Over 90% of investments in Fund 7 were in companies at the seed or Series A stage with more than half of those being seed investments.
A component of Madrona’s seed strategy is supporting the work of Madrona Venture Labs. Madrona Venture Labs, run by experienced founders, Mike Fridgen and Jay Bartot, brings a team of operators to help entrepreneurs through the first steps of company building. Madrona also supports accelerators across the region such as AI2 Incubator, Female Founders Alliance, Ready Set Raise, Techstars and Pioneer Square Labs.
Bringing Knowledge and Relationships to Bear at all Stages
In 2019, Madrona raised the first Acceleration Fund for initial investments in companies that had found product-market fit and were ready to . . Accelerate! At this stage, companies need strategic partnerships and understanding of market forces that can influence their journey and experienced advisors familiar with go-to-market strategies and building teams to scale. Madrona’s deep relationships with Amazon and Microsoft and enterprise customers as well as the roll up their sleeves attitude comes to bear in these investments. Previous Madrona investments at 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 venture capital firm based in Seattle, WA. With more than 25 years of investing in early stage technology companies, the firm has worked with founders from Day One to help build their company for the long run. Madrona invests predominantly in seed and Series A rounds across the information technology spectrum, and in 2018 raised the first fund dedicated to initial investments in acceleration stage (Series B and C stages) companies. Madrona manages over $2 billion and was an early investor in companies such as Amazon, Smartsheet, Isilon, Redfin, and Snowflake.
Media contact: Erika Shaffer, [email protected] 206-972-5514
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