Synthesize Bio
Facts
- HQ
- Seattle, WA, US
- Sectors
- Biotechnology Research
- Founded
- 2023
- Type
- Corporation Seattle business license
- Employees
- 21
- Registered name
- Synthesize Bio Seattle business license
- Stage
- Seed
- Founders
- Robert Bradley, PhD, Jeff Leek, PhD
AI House hosts Demo Day in Seattle with 25 startups pitching to investors flown in from Boston, New York, Colorado and the Bay Area
AI House hosted a demo day in Seattle where 25 early-stage startups—many outside the incubator’s portfolio—pitched to investors flown in from Boston, New York, Colorado, the Bay Area and other cities to increase outside capital for local founders. Organizers aimed to showcase diverse Seattle startups, from revenue-generating companies to ambitious technologists, and attracted both national and local venture investors.
Taylor Soper lists founders and startups who pitched at Demo Day, including Lightspeed AI, Vantari VR, Eidol AI and Hubble AI (YC S26)
A LinkedIn post by Taylor Soper lists founders who pitched at Demo Day, naming thirty individuals and teams along with their startups, including companies like Lightspeed AI, Vantari VR, Eidol AI, and Hubble AI (YC S26).
Seattle Startup Pauling.AI Uses AI to Cut Drug Discovery from Months to Weeks, Founded by Ex-Google Exec Javier Tordable in 2024
Seattle startup Pauling.AI uses AI to automate early drug discovery steps, reducing timelines from months to weeks and aiming to greatly increase new drug approvals. Founded in 2024 by former Google technical director Javier Tordable, the company offers a 'scientist-as-a-service' platform to assist researchers with computational chemistry and drug candidate modeling.
Susan Kaech Named Executive VP at Allen Institute; Arthur Valdez Joins Impinj Board; Jason Bennett Shifts to AWS VP Role
Susan Kaech joins the Allen Institute as executive VP of the Immunology Moonshot; Arthur Valdez Jr. joins Impinj's board; Jason Bennett transitions to VP of worldwide startups and venture capital at AWS. These leadership changes reflect strategic moves across bioscience, RFID technology, and cloud services sectors.
The Future of Biology Is Generative: Inside Synthesize Bio's RNA AI Model
In this episode of Founded & Funded, Madrona Investor Joe Horsman sits down with Jeff Leek and Rob Bradley, co-founders of Synthesize Bio, a foundation model company for biology that's unlocking experiments researchers could never run in the lab. Jeff, chief data officer at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, and Rob, the McIlwain Family endowed chair in data science, share: •Why a startup the right fit for generative genomics •How generative genomics could reshape research, drug trials, and more •Why RNA is the right starting point for a generative AI model in biology •What this breakthrough means for the future…
Fred Hutch-Led Synthesize Bio Raises $10M to Accelerate Drug Discovery Using AI Gene Expression Model
Seattle-based Synthesize Bio, led by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center researchers, raised $10 million from Madrona to accelerate drug discovery using their AI model GEM-1, which predicts gene expression outcomes with lab-level accuracy. The startup aims to reduce drug development time and costs by simulating hypothetical lab experiments with generative genomics.
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)…
#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.
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