News Briefs

AI-focused Madrona Venture Labs collects $11m for fifth fund

New investors for Fund V include Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub, Joe Beda, co-founder of Heptio, Brent Frei, co-founder of Smartsheet, and Michael Hilton, co-founder of Concur.

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  • Since its inception in 2014, Madrona Venture Labs has raised $40m and co-created and invested in 32 companies
  • The lead investor in the new fund is Madrona, an early-stage firm
  • MVL also named Larry Colagiovanni and Jay Bartot as technology and AI partners

Madrona Venture Labs, a Seattle-based start-up studio, has raised $11 million for its fifth fund to support founders building AI-related start-ups.

“MVL will continue to build and invest against its core theme as it evolves from big data and intelligent applications into the generative AI movement,” the firm said in a statement. “Recent companies in its portfolio include Charmed, AI-assisted game development; Augmend, collective intelligence for developers; Storia, AI-powered video production; and Finpilot, an AI co-pilot for finance.”

Madrona, an early-stage venture firm, is the lead investor in Fund V. New investors include Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub; Joe Beda, co-founder & former CTO of Heptio; Brent Frei, co-founder of Smartsheet & CEO of TerraClear; and Michael Hilton, former CPO of Accolade and co-founder of Concur.

Returning investors from previous funds include Elissa Fink, former CMO of Tableau; Spencer Rascoff, co-founder & former CEO of Zillow; and Mike McSherry, co-founder & CEO of Xealth.

Since its inception in 2014, MVL has raised $40 million and co-created and invested in 32 companies, which have collectively raised $261 million and hold a combined value of $629 million, MVL said.

“MVL is the ‘day one’ in Madrona’s continuum of supporting founders over the long run of their start-up journey,” said Hope Cochran, a managing director of Madrona. “Founders building a company with MVL get the full support of the Madrona team and the experienced builders joining their fund.”

In conjunction with the fundraising, MVL also named Larry Colagiovanni and Jay Bartot as new technology and AI partners.

Madrona is a venture firm that invests in early-stage technology companies. It manages $3 billion and was an early investor in companies such as Amazon, Smartsheet, Snowflake, Apptio, Redfin and UI Path.