Madrona Venture Group is a Seattle-based venture capital firm founded in 1995 that backs technology and consumer startups from seed through growth stages. It focuses on information technology, software, digital media and advertising, e-commerce, data analytics, fintech, cloud, mobile, and AI, as well as related infrastructure, hardware, and robotics. The firm primarily targets companies in the Pacific Northwest and the broader West Coast, and often leads investments with a goal of taking board seats to help portfolio companies scale from early development to market leadership.

Service Provider Capital is a venture capital firm established in 2014 and based in Colorado. The firm focuses on early-stage investments, notably seed-stage opportunities, and participates as a co-investor in Series A rounds led by institutional venture funds. Its portfolio interests span a broad range of technology sectors, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, cybersecurity, e-commerce, education technology, fintech, hardware, information technology, robotics, health, and cannabis.

Alumni Ventures Group is a venture capital firm based in Manchester, New Hampshire, with offices across North America. It provides access to venture investing for individual accredited investors, particularly alumni networks, by offering diversified portfolios of venture opportunities and allowing members to invest alongside fellow alumni in ventures led by peers. The firm backs early-stage and later-stage opportunities across technology, consumer, healthcare, financial services, and other sectors, with a sector- and geography-agnostic approach. It typically invests between $10,000 and $3 million per deal and emphasizes the involvement of alumni connections and an institutional lead investor in opportunities. Alumni Ventures also offers focused funds to broaden participation, enabling accredited investors to access venture portfolios diversified by type, sector, stage, and geography. The model aims to democratize access to venture capital while maintaining rigorous selection standards through alumni networks.

Founded in 1999, Enhanced Capital Partners is a New York-based investment firm managing over $400 million. It specializes in equity and debt investments for small to mid-sized companies across various sectors, with a focus on healthcare technology systems and TMT industries.

The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency in the United States that funds and supports research and education in science and engineering. It funds fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering and administers non-dilutive funding programs to aid early‑stage technology development, helping translate discoveries into commercially viable products and services. Through grants and fellowships, the NSF supports researchers, educators, and startups, contributing to innovation and U.S. competitiveness. The agency operates with a substantial budget to advance science, engineering, and STEM education nationwide.

Vulcan Capital is the private investment group of Vulcan Inc., the organization founded by Paul G. Allen. Based in Seattle with an additional office in Palo Alto, it invests globally across all stages of corporate development, including leveraged buyouts, growth capital, distressed and turnaround situations, and early-stage venture, as well as public equity value investing. The portfolio spans healthcare, software, media and entertainment, internet services, energy and resources, financial services, information services, life sciences, and technology. It pursues global opportunities with a focus on the United States, Europe, and Asia, and typically targets transactions in the tens of millions of dollars, with ranges starting around $10 million and above. Investments can take the form of control or minority positions across a mix of securities, and holdings may extend a decade or longer.

Founded in 2013, Keiretsu Capital is a Seattle-based private equity firm that invests in high-quality emerging companies. It focuses on life science, healthcare, technology, and real estate sectors, aiming to provide significant capital appreciation through strategic investments.

Founders' Co-op is a Seattle-based seed-stage venture capital firm that backs software startups in the Pacific Northwest. It supports founders in building companies that attract growth investors and provides access to regional deal flow for both local and out-of-region investors at the seed stage and beyond. Founded in 2008, it is described as the largest and longest-running seed-stage specialist fund in the Pacific Northwest.

New Enterprise Associates is a venture capital firm founded in 1977 and based in Menlo Park, California, with offices in the United States, India and China. It makes investments across technology and healthcare startups at multiple stages, from seed to growth, including software, cloud, data, internet services, fintech, AI, e-commerce, and enterprise technology, as well as healthcare information technology, life sciences, medical devices, and biopharma. It also considers energy technology and infrastructure opportunities, such as solar, batteries and smart grids. The firm pursues a global approach, with activity in the United States, Asia and other regions, and supports companies through rounds of financing ranging from small to sizable investments as they scale. NEA focuses on building portfolios in software, IT services, consumer technology, and healthcare technology, backing ambitious entrepreneurs across sectors and geographies.

Insight Partners is a global software investor that partners with growth-stage technology and software companies. The firm focuses on growth-stage software, internet, and data services, with emphasis on fintech, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and machine learning, DevOps, and healthcare. Based in New York City with offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto, Insight Partners has backed more than 750 companies worldwide and has more than 55 portfolio companies that have achieved an IPO. As of 2022, the firm reports over $75 billion in assets under management. It seeks to fund and work closely with visionary executives, providing practical, hands-on software expertise to support growth from initial investment through to IPO.

The U.S. Department of Energy is a government agency established in 1977, located in Washington, D.C. Its primary mission is to ensure the security and prosperity of the nation by tackling energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges. The Department focuses on promoting transformative scientific and technological solutions to address these issues, thereby supporting the country's energy needs and environmental sustainability.

Google is a multinational technology company renowned for its search engine, offering services such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, and YouTube. It specializes in advertising solutions through Google Ads and mobile operating systems with Android, while actively innovating in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Founded in 1997, Alliance of Angels is a Seattle-based angel group that invests in early-stage companies. With over $100 million invested across 200+ companies since inception, the group has facilitated numerous successful exits and returns.

Founded in 2007, Foundry Group is a venture capital firm headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. It focuses on early-stage investments in information technology, Internet, and software companies across North America.

Trilogy Equity Partners, established in 2006 and located in Bellevue, Washington, is a venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage investments. The firm is led by a team of former entrepreneurs and operators who have substantial experience in the technology and wireless sectors, including the formation and leadership of major mobile operators in the United States. Trilogy emphasizes a hands-on investment approach and aims to align its interests with the long-term growth of the companies it supports. The firm primarily invests in early-stage companies across the Pacific Northwest, striving to build great companies over time.

Caring for Denver Foundation is a new nonprofit formed and supported by overwhelming voter approval to use tax income to fund programs addressing mental health and drug misuse prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and harm reduction in the City and County of Denver.

Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded in 1972 and based in Menlo Park, California. It invests in seed, early, and growth-stage companies across technology, energy, financial services, healthcare, internet, mobile, outsourcing, manufacturing, media, and retail sectors. The firm seeks ambitious founders and aims to help them build long-lasting, scalable businesses, often taking the lead or significant co-investor roles and providing strategic guidance, networks, and resources. It maintains an international footprint, including investments in India and other regions, reflecting a global approach to partnering with fast-growing companies. Sequoia emphasizes strong teams, innovative products or services, and the potential for rapid growth, positioning itself as a long-term partner for companies that redefine their markets.

Tiger Global Management is a New York based investment firm that manages public and private market strategies to pursue technology-driven growth opportunities worldwide. Founded in 2001 by Charles (Chase) Coleman, the firm invests in leading global companies across various industries, with a particular emphasis on technology-enabled growth. In public markets it employs long/short and growth strategies, while in private markets it targets opportunities from early to late stage. The firm operates globally, including the United States, China, India, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, and works with portfolio companies across their lifecycle to drive long-term value.

Founded in 2008 and based in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, Kickstart is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies across the Mountain West region. With a focus on technology-related sectors, particularly software, they have supported numerous successful startups such as Lucid, Podium, and Galileo over their 17-year history.

Accel is a venture capital firm founded in 1983 and based in Palo Alto, California, with additional offices in San Francisco, London, and Bangalore. It focuses on early and growth-stage technology startups, investing across software, cloud, data analytics, mobile technology, consumer services, fintech, security, healthcare, and information technologies. Accel seeks to partner with entrepreneurs to build world-class companies that define new categories and drive growth. Its portfolio includes notable technology companies such as Atlassian, Dropbox, Slack, Spotify, Etsy, Cloudera, DJI, Braintree, and Lookout Security, among others.

SpringRock Ventures is a Seattle-based venture capital firm that backs healthcare technology companies across North America, focusing on digital health, software-enabled services, health IT, wellness, consumerization of healthcare, oral health, medical devices, infrastructure, genomics, and HIPAA/security solutions to improve general health. It funds companies across early to late stages, including seed or EIR opportunities, and typically supports high-growth ventures with demonstrated customer acceptance.

Founded in 2015, Liquid 2 Ventures is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California. It specializes in seed-stage investments for technology startups.

Founded in 2018 and based in Seattle, PSL Ventures is a venture capital firm focusing on early-stage technology-driven companies.

Rockies Venture Club is a Colorado-based nonprofit organization and angel network focused on economic development through funding and supporting early-stage startups. Founded in 1985 and based in Denver, it educates and connects state, local and national economic development organizations, universities, federal labs, startup organizations, corporate partners, venture capital, angel investors, and entrepreneurs to strengthen startup ecosystems. The club hosts events such as the Angel Capital Summit and Colorado Capital Conferences and maintains a community of more than 150 angel investors active across industries from pre-seed to Series A, with activity spanning North America.

SoftBank Robotics Europe, formerly Aldebaran Robotics, designs and manufactures humanoid robots for education, research, health, distribution, tourism, business applications, and home use. The company serves customers worldwide and focuses on interactive robotics that assist professionals and individuals. Founded in 2005, it is based in Paris, France, with additional offices in France, Japan, the United States, and China, and operates as a subsidiary of SoftBank Group.

Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and based in Menlo Park, California. It funds startups across the entire lifecycle, from seed to growth, with a broad focus on software and technology-enabled businesses. The firm backs companies in software, cloud infrastructure, digital platforms, data storage, and mobile and Internet services, as well as sectors at the intersection of technology with life sciences, such as bio healthcare and computational medicine. Its investments span artificial intelligence, fintech, consumer and enterprise software, crypto and blockchain, cybersecurity, and related infrastructure. Through strategic guidance and a hands-on approach, the firm aims to help portfolio companies scale and innovate.

WRF Capital is the corporate venture capital arm of the Washington Research Foundation, based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1981, it invests in early-stage startup companies based in Washington, with a focus on life sciences, enabling technologies, information technology, and physical sciences. It collaborates with entrepreneurs, research institutions, other investors, and industry partners to translate research and ideas into Washington-based businesses.

Founded in 1998 by Dan Levitan and Howard Schultz, Maveron is a venture capital firm focused on consumer-facing businesses. Based in Seattle with an additional office in San Francisco, the firm invests in early-stage companies across various sectors including e-commerce, health & wellness, food tech, fashion, and more. Maveron typically makes initial investments between $3 million to $15 million, preferring to be the lead investor and taking a board seat.

Voyager Capital is a Seattle-based venture capital firm focused on technology startups in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada. It invests in early-stage and growth-stage B2B software, analytics, cloud infrastructure, big data, and AI-enabled solutions, often leading first venture rounds and providing follow-on support. Founded in 1997, Voyager Capital maintains offices in Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, and offers portfolio companies strategic guidance, go-to-market support, and team-building resources to help build market leaders.

Sapphire Ventures is a global software-focused venture capital firm with teams across Austin, London, Menlo Park and San Francisco. It partners with visionary management teams and venture funds to back companies that can become category leaders and has backed hundreds of companies worldwide, generating a track record of public listings and acquisitions. The firm operates a multi-pronged platform—Sapphire Ventures, Sapphire Partners and Sapphire Sport—that combines growth and early-stage investing with a portfolio-growth team providing strategic resources and operational support to help portfolio companies scale. Sapphire Sport is an early-stage investment vehicle focused on the intersection of sport, media and entertainment technology, while the broader platform targets software, cloud, cybersecurity, AI and other technology-enabled sectors.

Microsoft is a multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells software products and services. Its offerings include the Windows operating system, Microsoft Office suite, server products like Windows Server and SQL Server, business solutions such as Dynamics, cloud services through Azure, hardware devices like Surface and Xbox, and online advertising platforms.

Revolution is a Washington, D.C.–based venture capital firm founded in 2005 by Steve Case, with an additional office in San Francisco. It backs technology-enabled startups that disrupt traditional industries and supports both early-stage and growth-stage companies, often taking leadership roles in financings and serving on boards. The firm operates a family of funds, including Revolution Ventures and Revolution Growth, and seeks opportunities across sectors such as consumer internet, software and services, media, financial services, healthcare, and other technology-enabled businesses. It emphasizes geography, aiming to back high-potential ventures in regions beyond traditional hubs by pairing capital with hands-on involvement and broad entrepreneurial networks.

Lighter Capital is a fintech company based in Seattle, Washington, that offers a unique fundraising solution for early-stage technology companies. Founded in 2010, it specializes in providing non-dilutive growth capital, allowing founders to access up to $2 million quickly and efficiently. Lighter Capital employs a transparent, data-driven approach to financing, streamlining the process compared to traditional funding methods. The firm serves a diverse range of sectors, including software, media, human capital services, food products, and commercial banking, focusing on helping growth-oriented businesses secure the financial resources they need to expand.

Sahsen Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2016 and located in Seattle, Washington. The firm focuses on making investments in both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, with a particular emphasis on technology and biotechnology. Sahsen Ventures targets companies operating in various sectors, including life sciences, health, safety, education, and the environment.

Threshold Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. It pursues a high-conviction, early-stage investment strategy and partners with entrepreneurs to build technology-driven companies in consumer, enterprise, and healthcare sectors. The firm provides venture and growth capital to technology companies and has historical ties to the broader Draper Fisher Jurvetson network. Threshold focuses on supporting early-stage ventures across software, consumer, and healthcare technologies, and seeks to back innovative teams aiming to reach market leadership.

Keiretsu Forum is an international association of private investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs. Established in San Francisco in 2000, it has since grown to over 2,500 members across more than 50 global chapters. The forum provides a platform for its members to network and invest in high-quality, diverse investment opportunities, typically ranging from $200,000 to $3.5 million. Keiretsu Forum focuses on companies with high growth potential across various sectors, including technology, consumer products, healthcare, clean tech, energy, and real estate.

Goldman Sachs is a global financial services firm that provides investment banking, securities, and investment management services to corporations, governments, financial institutions, and high-net-worth individuals. It advises on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and other corporate actions; underwrites public offerings and debt; and helps clients raise capital through various markets. The firm engages in market making and client execution across fixed income, currencies, commodities, and equities, and offers securities services including financing and lending to institutional clients. Its asset management and wealth advisory businesses manage assets and provide investment solutions for a broad client base, including institutions and individuals. Headquartered in New York, the company serves clients worldwide and operates across multiple business lines to support capital formation, risk management, and investment activities.

Ignition Partners is a venture capital firm based in Bellevue, Washington. It targets seed and Series A investments in United States software companies, with emphasis on B2B, information technology, SaaS, artificial intelligence, cloud technology, and cybersecurity. The firm backs early-stage ventures by leveraging the partners’ track record as business leaders who have built successful technology companies, offering domain expertise, strategic insight, and industry connections to help founders hire teams, refine products, and scale companies.

Unlock Venture Partners is a Seattle-based venture capital firm that backs seed-stage technology startups. Founded in 2017, it concentrates on early software and technology investments, with a regional focus on Seattle and Los Angeles and activity in California and Washington. The firm shows interest in metaverse, gaming, and Web3 applications applied to sectors such as digital media, fintech, insurance, e-commerce, and proptech.

T. Rowe Price Group is a global investment management firm serving individuals, institutions, and retirement plans. It launches and manages equity and fixed income mutual funds and provides separate accounts and other advisory services to clients. The firm invests in public markets worldwide, using a combination of fundamental and quantitative analysis with a bottom-up approach, supported by in-house and external research. It emphasizes socially responsible investing with a focus on environmental, social, and governance factors. Founded in 1937, the company is headquartered in Baltimore and maintains a worldwide presence with offices across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

9Mile Labs is an enterprise and B2B high-tech startup accelerator based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 2013, it provides workspace, funding, and a suite of perks along with access to a curated group of mentors and advisors who help entrepreneurs transform startup ideas into viable businesses and propel participating companies to the next level.

Bain Capital is a Boston-based multi-asset alternative investment firm that sources, funds, and manages investments across private equity, venture capital, credit, and public equity. Founded in 1984, it operates globally with specialized units focused on growth and buyout investments, life sciences, and impact-oriented opportunities. The firm backs companies across sectors including healthcare and life sciences, technology, software and data services, financial services, consumer, manufacturing, and industrials, spanning from early-stage ventures to growth equity and large-scale acquisitions. It emphasizes value creation through strategic support and partnerships, leveraging deep operating experience and a global network. Its life sciences arm targets pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and diagnostic companies; the Double Impact unit pursues market-rate returns alongside measurable social and environmental benefits; Bain Capital Ventures backs technology-enabled businesses from seed to growth across enterprise software, infrastructure, and services. The firm maintains offices in Boston and major markets worldwide, aiming to deliver competitive returns while supporting innovation and economic development.

Salesforce is a cloud-based software company that provides enterprise customer relationship management software and applications on a subscription basis. It designs and develops cloud-based enterprise software for sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, and application development, offering a comprehensive suite including Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, MuleSoft for data integration, and the Salesforce Platform. Its Customer 360 platform unifies customer data across systems, apps, and devices to help organizations sell, service, market, and conduct commerce more effectively.

Vista Equity Partners is a leading private equity firm based in Austin, Texas, founded in 2000 and focused on investing in software and technology-enabled businesses across industries such as enterprise software, data and related services. The firm aims to create value through growth and operational improvement and operates through Vista Consulting Group, its operating and consulting arm, which drives efficiency and best practices across portfolio companies. It also includes Vista Credit Partners, the credit-investing arm that provides financing to software, data and technology-enabled businesses to support value creation across the portfolio.

Sand Hill Angels, established in 2000, is a prominent angel investor group based in Mountain View, California, comprising over 60 successful Silicon Valley technology professionals. The group is dedicated to supporting and growing startup companies, with a focus on seed-stage technology investments across North America. They typically invest between $300,000 to $500,000 in private companies, with a pre-money valuation of less than $5 million. Sand Hill Angels' investment preferences span various sectors, including clean technology, Internet startups, information sciences, and life sciences, with a particular interest in semiconductors, enterprise software, storage, communications, medical devices, diagnostics, and bioinformatics. The group collaborates openly with venture capital funds, other angel organizations, and the broader Bay Area ecosystem to foster the growth of technology startups.

Techstars Central LLC, formerly known as TechStars, LLC, is an startup accelerator specializing in incubation for only ten startup companies each summer. It does not invest in medical device companies, healthcare technology, biotechnology companies, restaurants, consultancies, or other local service oriented companies. The firm prefers to invest in fintech and technology oriented companies such as web-based or other software companies. It also invests in retail technology. It also invests in the field of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, blockchain, and IoT in India. The firm prefers to invest in companies located all over the world. It also invests in companies in the accelerator bootcamps that TechStars holds. It also prefers to invest in Africa/Middle East, Asia/Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean. It invests minimum $0.01 million and an optional $0.1 million convertible debt note. They offer a three-month program with a funding of $0.12 million. It runs an accelerator program Techstars Music which specializes in investments in startups creating new types copyright-management solutions, curation technology and new types of at-home and mobile-phone music experiences with an investment of $0.02 million in exchange of six percent equity. It runs an Accelerator Program called Techstars Adelaide which will focus on startups developing defence and security related technologies with an investment of $0.12 million in return for equity in their companies. The firm runs an accelerator program called the Barclays Tech Lab Africa Accelerator. It does not seek any board representation or investor rights in its portfolio companies. It prefers to take a minority stake with minimum six and maximum ten percent stake and receives founders stock in its portfolio companies. Techstars Central LLC was founded in 2006 and is based in Boulder, Colorado with additional offices across Australia, Asia, North America and Europe.

WestRiver Group, established in 2002, is a Seattle-based investment firm specializing in the technology, life science, energy, and experiential sectors. It offers integrated capital solutions, investing across various asset classes and capital structures. The firm leverages its extensive network and operational expertise to collaborate closely with portfolio companies and provide strategic leadership. WestRiver Group is committed to diversity, having adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider.

Peterson Partners is a Utah-based private equity firm that targets lower mid-market U.S. companies, pursuing both majority and minority investments and co-investment opportunities across sectors including consumer, software and internet, business services, retail, healthcare, fintech, digital commerce, and industrials; it engages in growth equity, leveraged buyouts, turnarounds and related strategies with a focus on businesses generating meaningful revenue. The firm also operates Peterson Ventures, its early-stage venture arm, which backs pre-seed and seed technology companies, notably in SaaS, digital commerce and healthcare, providing capital and active partnership to support growth. The organization positions itself as a value-added partner to entrepreneurs and has a broad geographic footprint across the United States.

Founded in 1911, Bessemer Venture Partners is a venture capital firm based in Redwood City, California. With over $4 billion under management, the firm invests globally across various sectors including artificial intelligence & machine learning, biotech, cloud, consumer, cybersecurity, deep tech, developer, fintech, healthcare, marketplaces, and vertical software. Known for its long-standing support of entrepreneurs, Bessemer has backed companies such as Pinterest, Shopify, Twilio, Yelp, and Linkedin.

The Amazon Alexa Fund, established in 2015 and based in Seattle, Washington, serves as Amazon's corporate venture capital arm. It focuses on investing in early- to growth-stage companies that are innovating in various sectors, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, healthcare, wellness, the Internet of Things, fintech, property technology, gaming, robotics, and voice technology. The fund aims to support advancements that enhance voice-powered interactions and improve customer experiences. In addition to financial investments, the Alexa Fund also operates the Alexa Accelerator, in collaboration with Techstars, which invites selected startups to participate in a 13-week program designed to foster innovation in voice technology.