As it celebrates 30 years in business, Madrona Capital, a Seattle-based venture capital firm, closed Fund X and Acceleration Fund IV, raising $770 million in total. This is the VC firm’s largest fundraise to date, surpassing the $690 million raised in 2022 and its $345 million fund in 2020.
Plans investments across stages
The new capital will be allocated to investing in AI applications across various sectors and infrastructure companies that enhance user interaction with foundational models.
It plans to make initial investments in nearly 30 companies in Fund X at pre-seed, seed, or Series A stage and 12 companies at a Series B or C stage over the life of the funds. It will support these companies as long as needed to achieve their business and societal goals. The fund will also continue to invest in the dynamic technology ecosystems in greater Seattle, the Pacific Northwest, and Silicon Valley.
The team behind Madrona?
Founded in 1995 with a seed investment in Amazon, Madrona has evolved to be a multi-stage venture firm, investing in pre-seed, seed, and Series A from Madrona Fund X and in new companies at the Acceleration stage (Series B and C) from its Acceleration Fund (AFIV). The firm opened an office in Palo Alto in 2022 and continues to invest in growing the team there as well as in the Seattle HQ.
Madrona is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on transformative technologies, particularly in applied AI, automation, and cloud computing. The firm’s team, led by seasoned investors, including Tom Alberg, Paul Goodrich, and Matt McIlwain, combines deep industry expertise with a hands-on approach.
Portfolio of investments
Madrona’s vision is to invest in innovative founders and technologies driving the future of work, commerce, and industry. Below are some of its portfolio companies.
Snowflake: A cloud-based data platform revolutionising data storage, management, and analytics.
Doorstead: A property management company that offers homeowners an upfront vacancy period and a guaranteed minimum monthly rent before placing a tenant.
MotherDuck: A company that builds a serverless, easy-to-use data analytics platform based on DuckDB
Read AI: A startup selling enterprise productivity software tools fueled by generative AI.
“We are deeply grateful to our investors who share our belief in day one investing along with a strategy that provides the best of seed and acceleration stage company building. Our 30-year strategy of delivering the Seattle perspective, recently enhanced by a strong Silicon Valley team, is highly differentiated in the venture world. This past year, we’ve witnessed an accelerating pace of innovation, and we are delighted to have these new funds to support visionary founders and teams in a ‘risk on’ market environment. By leveraging data and applied AI at their core, these innovators are building the transformational companies of tomorrow,” said Matt McIlwain, managing director, Madrona.
