More Money For Seattle Startups: Madrona Raises $300M Fund

Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group just announced that it has raised a $300 million fifth fund.

This is the firm’s fifth fund, and its largest yet. The firm says it had planned to raise $250 million, but the fund was oversubscribed, with most of the money coming from existing investors.

The new fund will follow Madrona’s existing strategy of early-stage (seed and Series A) investing, with a focus on companies in the Northwest. In the press release, managing director Matt McIlwain argues that “early-stage venture capital is a local business.”

Madrona had planned to announce the funding Thursday, but Bloomberg got the news first.

The firm says it has nearly than $1 billion under management and that it has had 33 positive exits, including Amazon.com, aQuantive, Classmates.com, Farecast.com. More recent investments include dogsitting marketplace Rover.com and location analytics company Placed.

I’ll update this post after I speak to McIlwain this evening.