Madrona Venture Group raises $300m in sixth fund backed by university endowments and others.
Madrona Venture Group, an early backer of online retailer Amazon, has closed its sixth fund worth $300m.
The Seattle-based firm, launched in 1995, now has $1.3bn under management. Madrona plans to use the latest fund to invest in 30 to 35 startups in early rounds of the coming three years, and is focusing on technology, specifically enterprise software and virtual reality.
The James Irvine and Kauffman foundations both participated in the fundraising, as did unnamed family offices and university endowments. All the backers were existing supporters in prior Madrona funds. Although Madrona did not announce exactly which universities reinvested, Washington and North Carolina are both previous backers, as are UK-based universities Cambridge and Oxford.
Matt McIlwain, managing director of Madrona Venture Group, said: “Early stage investing is a trust-based partnership between visionary founders and company-building investors. Madrona has a long track record of finding and helping great entrepreneurs realize their full potential. The Pacific Northwest is one of the most innovative and important tech markets in the world with incredible talent, companies, and technology across sectors like cloud, SAAS, mobile and consumer. Working with entrepreneurs inspires us every day, and with this new fund we look forward to that continuing for many years to come.”
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