Madrona: Seattle's Anchor VC, $770M Fresh for the AI Era

Madrona is Seattle's largest and oldest venture capital firm, founded in 1995 by Tom Alberg, Paul Goodrich, Jerry Grinstein and Bill Ruckelshaus. For three decades it has anchored the Pacific Northwest startup ecosystem on a simple principle: back founders from day one and stay with them for the long run. Its tagline says it plainly — "for the founders committed to turning the improbable into the inevitable."

The thesis is deliberately regional. Madrona backs founding teams in seed, early and acceleration stages in Seattle, the Bay Area and beyond — but its capital is overwhelmingly hometown money. Over 80% of its core-fund portfolio companies have historically been based in the Pacific Northwest, and Madrona expects to invest 75% of its newest funds there. The bet: early-stage companies move faster with access to trusted networks, and Seattle's network runs through Microsoft, Amazon and the University of Washington.

The funds have scaled steadily. In January 2025, Madrona raised $770 million across its tenth fund — Fund X and Acceleration Fund IV — a firm record. About 60% targets the early-stage vehicle, which will make roughly 30 pre-seed, seed and Series A investments; the acceleration fund targets 12 investments at Series B and beyond. That followed a record $690 million raise in 2022 — Madrona Fund 9 at $430 million plus Acceleration Fund 3 at $260 million — and roughly $500 million across two funds in 2020. Total assets under management: $3 billion.

The track record is why LPs keep returning. Madrona was an early investor in Amazon, and its portfolio includes Snowflake, Smartsheet, Apptio, Redfin and UiPath — companies that grew into global platforms. Recent names on the firm's roster include Runway, Cohesity, Deepgram, Statsig, Coda, OctoAI and Unstructured, and recent exits include pet-sitting giant Rover (sold to private equity) and Lexion (acquired by Docusign).

Sectors move with the cycle but stay close to enterprise. Current themes: the modern data stack and DevOps, intelligent applications (applied AI and ML), fintech, Web3, and the intersection of life and computer sciences. The 2025 emphasis is on agentic and application-layer AI companies solving specific customer problems — plus the infrastructure beneath them — with continuing interest in enterprise software, travel, life sciences and health tech.

On founder support, Madrona is deliberately hands-on. From 2014 to early 2025 it ran Madrona Venture Labs, a startup studio that incubated 30 startups before being folded into the main firm to run everything "under one roof, one team, one funding vehicle." It also publishes the annual Intelligent Applications 40 ranking. The partnership — led by managing directors Matt McIlwain, S. Somasegar, Scott Jacobson, Tim Porter, Steve Singh and Karan Mehandru, who runs the firm's Palo Alto office — aims to invest across a startup's entire lifespan, from formation to IPO.

For founders, the practical read is simple: the core fund writes early cheques (pre-seed through Series A, follow-on through Series C), the acceleration fund steps in at Series B/C once you have product-market fit, and the Pacific Northwest gets 75% of the capital. Expect a partner-led process, deep Seattle network access, and an AI-first lens in 2026.