Gradial
Facts
- HQ
- Seattle, Washington, US
- Sectors
- Technology, Information and Internet
- Founded
- 2023
- Employees
- 129
- Stage
- Startup
Microsoft names Silvia Candiani corporate VP at $2.5B Frontier Company; Kevin Frey joins Microsoft Elevate as VP and chief impact officer; AWS promotes Alexis Bateman
Multiple tech companies announced senior hires and promotions: Silvia Candiani named corporate VP for Worldwide Telco & Media at Microsoft Frontier Company; Kevin Frey appointed VP and chief impact officer of Microsoft Elevate; Anne Linge promoted to director of communications at Microsoft; Alexis Bateman promoted to director of global sustainability at AWS; Gradial named a CMO; Yoodli and Kestra each appointed a vice president.
Madrona’s 2026 IA40 lists 45 private AI firms with $410B raised, Anthropic, OpenAI and Databricks hold 92%
Madrona's sixth annual Intelligent Applications 40 names 45 private AI companies that together raised $410 billion, with Anthropic, OpenAI and Databricks accounting for 92% of that total. Rising round sizes forced Madrona to raise its own funding thresholds for "early stage" to $50M and "emerging enablers" to $100M, highlighting a split between capital-heavy frontier labs and comparatively capital-light downstream builders.
Helion’s $465M Series G Values Everett Fusion Firm Above $15B, Tops Seattle-Area 2Q VC Deals
Everett fusion-energy company Helion led greater Seattle-area 2Q venture capital deals with a $465 million Series G that valued it above $15 billion, making up nearly one-third of the region’s $1.5 billion in 2Q funding amid a year-over-year decline from $2.3 billion in 2Q 2025.
Madrona Ventures Invests in Thira, Reuniting Founders Sunny Gupta and Kurt Shintaffer to Build AI-Native Systems for CIOs
Madrona announced a new investment in Thira, led by founders Sunny Gupta and Kurt Shintaffer, reuniting experienced enterprise builders to tackle CIO-focused AI-native systems. The firm argues Thira’s team and product strategy will help CIOs deploy AI-driven systems of execution and drive measurable returns on technology and AI investments.
Seattle Startups Raise $2.7B in H1 2026 — Down 40% Year‑Over‑Year While U.S. VC Hits Record $412.7B
Seattle-area startups raised $2.7 billion across 163 deals in H1 2026, a roughly 40% drop from $4.5 billion a year earlier, as national venture funding surged to a record $412.7 billion driven largely by AI mega-rounds that Seattle’s pure-play AI companies did not capture.
Starcloud Becomes Fastest Y Combinator Unicorn at $1.1B as Fusion Leader Helion Tops GeekWire 200 with $15.5B Valuation
The latest GeekWire 200 highlights a shift in the Pacific Northwest startup scene toward physical products like rockets, fusion reactors, and space-based data centers, with Starcloud becoming the fastest Y Combinator unicorn valued at $1.1 billion. Helion maintains the top spot with a $15.5 billion valuation, while notable companies like Stoke Space, Overland AI, and new unicorn XBOW also make significant moves.
Gradial Raises $65M Series C Led by Insight Partners at $675M Valuation to Expand AI Marketing Platform
Gradial, a Seattle-based AI startup founded in 2023, raised $65 million in a Series C round led by Insight Partners to expand its AI platform for automating enterprise marketing workflows. The funding will support growing its 100-person team, focusing on engineering, sales, and marketing.
Gradial Raises $65M Series C Led by Insight Partners to Scale AI Marketing Platform with $675M Valuation
Seattle-based startup Gradial raised $65 million in a Series C funding round led by Insight Partners, bringing total funds raised to over $110 million in 16 months. The company builds an AI orchestration platform for enterprise marketing that integrates with tools like Adobe and Salesforce, and plans to use the funds to scale engineering, sales, and cloud infrastructure.
Gradial, founded by ex‑SpaceX Starlink leaders, raises Series C after scaling to tens of millions serving Amazon, T‑Mobile and other Fortune 500s
Gradial, founded by former SpaceX Starlink leaders Doug Tallmadge and Deip Kumar with co‑founders Anup, Anish and Vikas, builds an AI-native system for enterprise marketing execution and has grown to tens of millions in revenue serving Fortune 500 clients. The company expands from website content workflows to multi‑channel campaign orchestration using agentic content infrastructure aimed at delivering scalable ROI for large enterprises.
How to Sell AI Into the Enterprise: Pilots, Pricing, and Closing 12-Month Deals
What does it really take to sell an AI-native product into the Fortune 500? In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Managing Director Matt McIlwain sits down with two founders deep in the trenches of enterprise AI adoption, Esha Joshi (Co-founder, Yoodli) and Anup Chamrajnagar (Co-founder, Gradial.) Their companies are selling into some of the world's most complex organizations, like Google, SAP, Snowflake, Databricks, and more. And they break down what founders often underestimate about enterprise AI sales. They dive into: Why most AI pilots fail and how to prevent it The "three-legged stool" of enterprise sales How AI…
Seattle Startup Gradial Raises $35M Series B to Expand AI Platform Automating Enterprise Marketing Workflows
Seattle startup Gradial raised $35 million in a Series B round led by VMG Partners to expand its AI platform that automates enterprise marketing workflows. The company's total funding is $55 million, valuing it at $350 million, with clients including AWS, Prudential, and T-Mobile.
Madrona Announces 2026 Intelligent Applications 40 as AI Market Shifts to Enterprise ROI; Cites Cursor $60B, Wiz $32B, OpenRouter ~$7B, Hugging Face $12.9B
Madrona released its 6th annual Intelligent Applications 40 list highlighting a shift from AI experimentation to enterprise-ready products that deliver measurable ROI, noting recent big acquisitions (SpaceX–Cursor $60B, Google–Wiz $32B, OpenRouter ~$7B, Nvidia–HuggingFace $12.9B). The list emphasizes value creation in harnesses and aggregation layers—agentic systems, routing, hosting, and inference services—rather than models alone.
GeekWire Week in Review: Bill Gates Pledges $200B, Statsig Hits $1.1B Valuation, Seattle Startups Raise Millions in May 2025
This GeekWire Week in Review highlights top tech stories including Bill Gates' $200 billion philanthropy pledge, Seattle startups raising significant capital, and the emergence of new AI-driven unicorn Statsig valued at $1.1 billion. It also covers local news like a controversial Washington EV tax and cultural moments involving Seattle figures.
Madrona Venture Group Marks 30 Years with $770M Raised for New Funds, Continuing Strong Seattle Investments
Madrona Venture Group, a Seattle-based venture capital firm celebrating its 30th anniversary, has invested in major startups like Amazon and recently raised $770 million for two new funds to support about 40 investments. While expanding beyond the Pacific Northwest with a Palo Alto office, Madrona continues to focus most of its investments locally.
Seattle Venture Day 2024 - Highlight Video
Seattle Venture Day is OneSixOne Ventures' flagship Seattle tech event. The 2nd annual event brought together 250+ tech leaders, investors and founders at the Queen Anne Beerhall for networking and some insightful dialogues about build and investing in startups. The event featured a fireside chat with Matt McIlwain, Managing Partner at Madrona (3x Forbes Midas list) in addition to panel discussions featuring other notable speakers such as Geoff Entress (Pioneer Square Labs), Bill McAleer (Voyager Capital), Aviel Ginzburg (Founders Co-op), Kristen Hamilton (Enjoy The Work), Maria Colacurcio (Syndio), Laura Ruderman (Technology Alliance), Kirby Winfield (Ascend VC), Julie Sandler (PSL Ventures)…
Anup Leaves Certa.ai to Become Co-Founder and CCO at Gradial, Rejoining Founders After 14 Months
Anup has stepped down from his role at Certa.ai after 14 months to join Gradial as Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, reuniting with the founding team. He praised Certa.ai for its culture and growth and invited contacts to reach out regarding Gradial's AI-driven marketing automation for Fortune 500 companies.
#64 Matt McIlwain – MD Madrona Venture Group on all Things Venture Capital
Nataraj interviewed veteran VC Matt McIlwain of Madrona Venture Group on Startup Project podcast. Matt shared his insights into the state of venture capital and the impacts of AI, drawn from his 20+ years of experience. Some key takeaways: 1. Venture is a "tale of two cities" now - later stage startups are struggling, earlier stage companies embracing AI are thriving 2. Seattle has unmatched talent but lacks local capital - still over-reliant on Silicon Valley VCs 3. Incumbents have the edge currently in leveraging AI due to data, customers, ability to integrate via APIs - but long term, AI-native…
Shift AI Podcast: Seattle's place at the center of the AI universe, with Madrona's Matt McIlwain
On this week’s GeekWire Podcast, we're featuring an episode of Shift AI, a podcast hosted by Boaz Ashkenazy, CEO of AI solutions provider Simply Augmented, with guest Matt McIlwain of Seattle-based venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group. A thriving tech hub requires access to ideas, people, and experiments that produce collective lessons sooner and with greater fidelity than anywhere else. This is what made the Seattle area the cloud capital of the world. It also positions the region as one of the world’s top centers of excellence for artificial intelligence. That’s one of the insights from Matt McIlwain, managing director…
Investor Spotlight with Matt McIlwain
Get to know Madrona Managing Partner Matt McIlwain. Learn where he gets his spark to work with entrepreneurs, what he looks for in founders, where the opportunities lay for founders when it comes to generative AI, and what he enjoys doing outside the office.
'Slackforce,' AWS re:Invent, and Seattle's new $9B tech company
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Salesforce strikes a deal to acquire Slack for $27.7 billion; Amazon Web Services makes some surprising news at its annual re:Invent cloud conference; and a new tech giant arrives in our backyard. Joining us on this episode is Matt McIlwain, managing director at Seattle-based venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group, offering his commentary on the implications of these developments in the world of cloud and enterprise technology. Special bonus: Listen to the end of the show for a new installment of our GeekWire Podcast trivia contest, with a chance to win a GeekWire mask…
Matt McIlwain (Madrona) on lessons from 20 years of VC investing, traits of top entrepreneurs, and building a bigger pie
20 years as a VC at Madrona. Headline IPOs like Accolade, Smartsheet, Apptio, Isilon. Invested in cloud before it was cool. 3x Midas list. 3x CB's top 100 VC list. Matt goes behind the scenes on his lessons (from the highs and lows), Madrona's philosophy, and how the best leaders work.
Special COVID-19 Episode: Matt McIlwain
Matt McIlwain, one of the Managing Directors at Madrona Venture Group, explains the most important quality he looks for in a CEO before investing, Madrona’s new accelerator fund, how he spends his time as an investor and his passion for public policy on the What Fuels You podcast. On COVID-19, Matt brings up some interesting points about the “natural tension between freedom and boundaries” and how “barriers have been broken down to find sustainable preventions, cures and tests.” Listen to hear what he believes will be the business opportunities that come out of this pandemic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
People
See all 4-
Anish Chadalavada Founder, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer
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Deip Kumar Founder, Co-Founder / CTO
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Doug Tallmadge Founder, Co-founder, Co-Founder and CEO
