At a Glance
Madrona Ventures was founded in 1995 and has established itself as the Pacific Northwest's premier venture capital firm. The firm has deep roots in the Seattle tech ecosystem, with early investments in Amazon and other regional success stories that helped define the area's technology landscape. Madrona focuses on early-stage investments across AI, cloud infrastructure, enterprise software, and consumer technology, typically leading Series A and B rounds while also making select seed investments. The firm is known for its hands-on approach and strong network within the Pacific Northwest, often serving as a bridge between Seattle-area startups and Silicon Valley resources. Led by partners including Tom Alberg, Matt McIlwain, and others, Madrona has consistently been ranked among the top-performing regional VC firms. The firm's investment philosophy emphasizes backing exceptional entrepreneurs building category-defining companies, with a particular strength in enterprise software and infrastructure technologies. Their portfolio includes notable exits like Snowflake, Smartsheet, and Auth0, demonstrating their ability to identify and scale significant technology companies.
“Partners with ambitious founders in the Pacific Northwest and beyond, investing in AI-first and enterprise technology companies.”
Tom Alberg co-founded Madrona and set its template as an operator-led regional firm. He was the earliest outside investor in Amazon's 1995 seed round and sat on the company's board from 1996 to 2019, a tenure that anchored the firm's standing in Seattle.
Matt McIlwain is a managing director focused on applied machine learning and cloud, and was an early champion of Snowflake and of companies building in the Amazon Web Services ecosystem. S. Somasegar joined as managing director after 27 years at Microsoft, where he ran the Developer Division as senior vice president; he has led investments in Snowflake, UiPath and Statsig and anchors the firm's enterprise, developer tools and AI infrastructure work. Tim Porter joined in 2006 and invests in early-stage B2B software, analytics and developer tools across the Pacific Northwest. Hope Cochran rounds out the managing director group.
Madrona has raised ten core funds since 1995 and has scaled steadily rather than in jumps. Fund VII was extended by an additional $120 million after its initial close, a rare move that let the firm hold positions longer. In 2020 Madrona closed Fund VIII at $345 million, its largest core fund at the time, alongside $161 million for its second later-stage Acceleration Fund.
The pace accelerated from there. In 2022 the firm announced $690 million in new capital, with $430 million for Madrona Fund IX and $260 million for the companion Acceleration Fund. In January 2025 it announced $770 million across Madrona Fund X and Acceleration Fund IV, the largest raise in firm history, explicitly earmarked for applied AI companies. The two-vehicle structure is the point: the core fund leads seed and Series A rounds, while the Acceleration Fund holds reserves to keep buying into breakout companies through growth rounds without diluting the early-stage fund's return profile.
Madrona Ventures primarily invests at the Seed, Series A, Series B+ stages. This means they focus on companies that are building their initial product and finding product-market fit.
Madrona Ventures is headquartered in Seattle, WA. Many of their portfolio companies are also based in this region, though they invest across geographies.
Madrona Ventures focuses on investments in AI, Enterprise, SaaS, Consumer, DevTools. Their portfolio reflects deep expertise and networks within these sectors.
Madrona Ventures's typical investment check size ranges from $500K to $20M. Actual amounts may vary based on the stage, sector, and specific opportunity.
Madrona Ventures manages approximately $3B in assets under management (AUM) across their funds.
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