12 Best Venture Capital (VC) Firms In Seattle
Seattle is a bustling hub for tech and innovation, making it a prime location for startups. If you’re seeking funding to launch or grow your business, you’re in the right place. This article highlights the best VC firms in Seattle known for their commitment to supporting new ventures.
Acequia Capital
Acequia Capital is an early-stage global investment platform founded in 2010 by Hank Vigil, a former Microsoft senior executive. The firm has invested in over 350 technology companies. Aside from providing initial risk capital, they offer experienced advice on product roadmap, technology strategy, business model, and go-to-market execution, making their partnership sought after by founders.
Headquarters: USA
Investment Geography: USA, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, Australia, Singapore, Netherlands, Belgium, India
Operating since: 2010
Investment Focus: Tech (Consumer Internet, Digital Media, FinTech, Software/SaaS, Enterprise/B2B, Cloud, AI, ML, Data Analytics, Computer Vision, IoT, Digital Health, Industrial Automation, Digital Transformation, Retail, Manufacturing)
Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Number of investments: 504
Number of exits: 101
Check size: $100k – $5m
Notable investments: Pinterest, Dropbox, Airbnb
Founders/Key People: Hank Vigil, Leif Danielsen
Website: https://acecap.com
Curious Capital
Based in Seattle, Curious Capital is a venture capital firm primarily focusing on pre-seed investments. The typical check size range for Curious Capital is between $25,000 to $100,000. This range is indicative of the firm’s strategic approach to investing in early-stage startups, often in their nascent stages of development.
Headquarters: USA
Investment Geography: USA
Operating since: 2017
Stages: Pre-Seed,Seed
Investment Focus: Consumer Tech,Enterprise Tech,SaaS,AI,AR
Number of investments: 23
Number of exits: 5
Check size: $25k – $100k
Notable investments: Blokable, Alter
Founders/Key People: Niklas Walinski, Kareem Al-Mansour
Website: https://curious.vc
Essence Venture Capital
Essence Venture Capital, established in 2019, is a venture capital firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The firm specializes in a data infrastructure and development tools specialist fund, supporting technical founders in various aspects, including developing narratives, founders’ skills, communities, and engineering teams. With a deep technical background and operating experience, Essence VC offers unique support and insights to its portfolio companies. The firm is particularly known for helping founders transition from technical roles to effective leadership positions and strongly focuses on building and scaling engineering teams.
Headquarters: USA
Investment Geography: UK, USA, Israel, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Australia
Operating since: 2019
Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Investment Focus: Data Infrastructure, Dev Tools, B2B, SaaS, Enterprise
Number of investments: 107
Number of exits: 7
Check size: $250k – $5M
Notable investments: Jasper AI, Warp, Sardine
Founders/Key People: Timothy Chen, Naomi Walker
Website: https://www.essencevc.fund/
Flying Fish Partners
Flying Fish Partners, a venture capital firm based in Seattle, specializes in early-stage investments, focusing primarily on AI and ML technology companies. Established in 2016, their investment strategy prioritizes high-potential startups in the U.S. and Canada, particularly those that integrate AI and ML at the core of their business model. This emphasis is evident in their portfolio, which features a variety of companies leveraging AI and ML in innovative ways. Flying Fish Partners is noted for its operational experience, with its founders – Geoff Harris, Heather Redman, and Frank Chang – bringing a mix of technical, operational, and investing expertise to the table.
Headquarters: USA
Investment Geography: USA, Canada
Operating since: 2016
Stages: Seed,Series A
Investment Focus: Cloud Computing,Software,AI,Speech Recognition,NLP,ML,IoT
Number of investments: 56
Number of exits: 8
Check size: $200k – $5m
Notable investments: Finn AI, Streem
Founders/Key People: Frank Chang, Heather Redman
Website: https://www.flyingfish.vc/home/
Hemisphere Ventures
Hemisphere Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Mercer Island, Washington, focusing on pre-seed and seed financing. The firm is known for investing in robotics, drones, and space sectors. Founded in 2014, Hemisphere Ventures targets early-stage ventures, seed rounds, and later-stage VC opportunities, primarily within the United States. Their industry focus includes crypto, web3, blockchain, big data, and digital health.
Headquarters: USA
Investment Geography: USA, Israel, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Argentina, Cayman Islands
Operating since: 2014
Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed
Investment Focus: Software, AdTech, AI, BioTech, EdTech, FinTech, HealthTech, IoT, Travel, Marketplaces, Robotics, Drones, Space, Enterprise, Consumer
Number of investments: 261
Number of exits: 96
Check size: $100k – $3m
Notable investments: Cabify, Aircall, Picnic
Founders/Key People: Chip Whittemore
Website: https://www.hemisphere.com
Madrona Venture Group
Madrona Venture Group, founded in 1995, is a venture capital firm based in Seattle, Washington. Specializing in seed, startup, Series A, and early-stage investments, Madrona Venture Group has a particular focus on information technology and infrastructure sectors. The firm invests in early- to late-stage companies, primarily in the Pacific Northwest but also beyond this region. Madrona has a history of supporting innovative technology companies and has been actively involved in the growth of the tech ecosystem in its operating regions.
Headquarters: USA
Investment Geography: United States, Canada, France, Türkiye, Australia, Spain, Czech Republic, China, Israel.
Operating since: 1995
Investment Focus: Adtech, Apps, Data & Analytics, Infrastructure,Martech,ML & Intelligent Apps,Networking/Storage,SaaS/Cloud,Tech-enabled Services),Consumer (Apps,Digital Media,E-commerce,Gaming,Marketplaces,Mobile,Social)
Stages: Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B.
Number of investments: 583
Number of exits: 117
Check size: $1M – $10M
Notable investments: Amazon, UiPath.
Founders/Key People: Tim Porter, Loren Alhadeff
Website: https://www.madrona.com
PSL Ventures
Pioneer Square Labs (PSL) Ventures, established in 2015, is a venture capital firm based in Seattle, Washington. The firm functions as both a venture capital fund and a startup studio. PSL Ventures primarily invests in technology-driven companies, focusing on startups in the Pacific Northwest region. They typically engage in pre-seed, seed, and Series A funding stages.
Headquarters: USA (Seattle, Washington)
Investment Geography: Pacific Northwest region of the United States
Operating since: 2015
Investment Focus: FinTech, SaaS, Enterprise Software, B2B Software, Digital Health, Consumer Internet, Virtual Reality, Gaming
Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Number of investments: 57
Number of exits: 15
Check size: $500k – $3m
Notable investments: Joon Care, Olis Robotics (formerly BluHaptics), Shipium
Founders/Key People: Julie Sandler, Matt Wang
Website: http://www.psl.com/
Second Avenue Partners
Second Avenue Partners, based in Seattle, is a venture capital firm co-founded by Nick Hanauer and Pete Higgins. It specializes in providing management, strategy, and capital to early-stage companies. The firm is known for investing in a great team of people who are aiming to significantly improve current solutions in terms of cost and functionality. Their areas of focus include internet, consumer and social media, software, mobile, and clean energy sectors.
Headquarters: USA (Seattle, Washington DC)
Investment Geography: USA
Operating since: 2000
Investment Focus: Consumer Internet, Social Media, Enterprise/B2B, Software/SaaS, Clean Energy
Stages: Series A, Series B, Series C
Number of investments: 78
Number of exits: 37
Check size: $5m – $35m
Notable investments: FLEXE, Seaq, FitOn
Founders/Key People: Nick Hanauer, Pete Higgins
Website: http://www.secondave.com/
SpringRock Ventures
SpringRock Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Seattle, Washington, established in 2015. It focuses on investments across the healthcare and technology sectors, targeting areas such as digital health, SaaS, health consumerization, medical devices, infrastructure, oral health, tech-enabled services, wellness, and HIPAA sectors. The firm is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs and companies that are innovating at the intersection of healthcare and information technology. SpringRock Ventures leverages its team’s extensive experience in healthcare, technology, and co-founder skill sets to invest in the next cycle of healthcare innovation. This includes a broad spectrum of SAAS, devices, services, security, genomics, oral health, and other disruptive providers aiming to improve general health.
Headquarters: United States
Investment Geography: United States, Türkiye.
Operating since: 2012
Investment Focus: HealthTech (Digital Health, SaaS, Health Consumerization, Medical Devices, Infrastructure, Oral Health, Tech-Enabled Health Care Services, Wellness, HIPAA).
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B.
Number of investments: 39
Number of exits: 3
Check size: $100K – $5M
Notable investments: IBM, OverJet
Founders/Key People: Eric Bell
Website: https://springrockventures.com/
Tola Capital
Tola Capital, established in 2010, is a Seattle-based venture capital firm focusing on enterprise software powered by artificial intelligence. The firm engages in hypothesis-based investing across areas like AI/ML Tooling, AI SaaS Applications, and AI Security Tools. Tola Capital emphasizes long-term relationships, working closely with companies on product development and strategy.
Headquarters: United States
Investment Geography: United States, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Israel, Australia.
Operating since: 2010
Investment Focus: Enterprise Software, B2B, SaaS (Data, Mobile Computing, Automation, AI/ML, Blockchain, FinTech, MarTech, Cyber Security, LegalTech, PropTech, HRTech).
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B.
Number of investments: 64
Number of exits: 17
Check size: $1M – $15M
Notable investments: Glia, Pulumi
Founders/Key People: Sheila Gulati
Website: https://tolacapital.com/
Unlock Venture Partners
Unlock Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage technology investments, primarily targeting startups in Seattle and Los Angeles. Founded in 2017, the firm has carved out specific niches in digital media, SaaS, fintech, and video sectors, with a strong emphasis on leveraging machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics to drive innovation. Unlock Ventures invests in seed-stage tech entrepreneurs, supporting them with capital, guidance, and access to a network of industry contacts to fuel growth and development.
Headquarters: United States
Investment Geography: United States, Mexico, Estonia, Australia.
Operating since: 2017
Investment Focus: Digital Media, FinTech, Video, SaaS, Software.
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B.
Number of investments: 75
Number of exits: 6
Check size: $25K – $200K
Notable investments: Outer, FightCamp
Founders/Key People: Sanjay Reddy
Website: https://unlockvp.com/philosophy
Voyager Capital
Voyager Capital is a venture capital firm founded in 1997 and based in Seattle, Washington. The firm primarily focuses on investing in technology companies, with a specific emphasis on software, analytics, and cloud infrastructure. Voyager Capital is known for leading first venture round investments in startups, aiding in the development of market leaders. They invest in seed-stage, early-stage, and later-stage companies, providing resources, experience, and connections to entrepreneurs.
Headquarters: United States
Investment Geography: United States, Canada.
Operating since: 1997
Investment Focus: Software, Cloud, Big Data Applications.
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B.
Number of investments: 245
Number of exits: 48
Check size: $500K – $10M
Notable investments: Paxton
Founders/Key People: Thomas Lin
Website: https://www.voyagercapital.com/
Conclusion
Choosing the right VC firm is crucial for any startup, especially in a competitive and innovative market like Seattle. The firms we’ve featured are leaders in the field, each offering unique advantages to their investment partners. Consider carefully what each firm can offer in terms of funding, expertise, and network. With the right partner, your business is set to thrive in Seattle’s vibrant ecosystem.
