Madrona Raises $345M for Eighth Early-Stage Fund

Madrona Venture Group has consistently played a significant role in supporting startups within the Seattle area and the broader northwest United States, and indications suggest this trend will continue.

The company disclosed the establishment of its eighth venture capital fund through four distinct filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, successfully securing $345 million in investments. This represents a modest increase compared to the firm’s previous three funds, each of which totaled $300 million. This announcement follows approximately two and a half years after the completion of fundraising for its seventh fund. This incremental growth in fund size contrasts with the approach taken by many other venture capital firms, which have significantly expanded their fund sizes to pursue larger, more mature investment opportunities.

Madrona has been actively expanding its team in recent years. Earlier this year, Steve Singh, previously the Chief Executive Officer of the enterprise technology company Docker, joined the firm as a managing director. Additionally, Hope Cochran was promoted to managing director in 2019, becoming the firm’s first female managing director. She initially joined Madrona in 2016 as a venture partner and previously served as the Chief Financial Officer for both mobile gaming leader King Digital and telecommunications provider Clearwire. The firm has also brought on board several seasoned professionals with expertise in enterprise solutions to enhance its portfolio services, including Katie Drucker and Mark Britton.

The firm is particularly recognized for its investments in enterprise-focused companies and has demonstrated strong investment activity throughout the current year. Recent investments include Sila, a provider of programmable banking infrastructure, in which Madrona led a $7.7 million seed funding round; Temporal, where Madrona participated in an $18.75 million Series A round led by Sequoia; and Stratify, an automated budgeting startup that received a $4.9 million seed investment led by Madrona.

In the previous year, the firm established a $100 million Acceleration Fund intended for taking minority ownership positions in growth-stage companies during Series B and Series C funding rounds. [Unverified] Information regarding the current status of that growth fund, or any potential plans to further emphasize this strategy, was previously unavailable.

Update December 30, 2020: Further details regarding the Acceleration Fund are now available. Madrona successfully raised $161 million for its Acceleration Fund II, as indicated by a compilation of four separate SEC filings and confirmed by a company spokesperson. This brings the total capital raised by Madrona through its late 2020 fundraising efforts to nearly $500 million. The reported size of the early-stage fund has also been updated from $320 million to $345 million to reflect the inclusion of three additional, smaller affiliated investment vehicles associated with Madrona’s early-stage fund.