Developer Platforms & Tools
Why we invest
As infrastructure, data, and AI transform how developers build software and applications, the tools to apply and deploy these technologies must evolve to meet new demands. With the right tools, developers can unlock the next wave of applications with AI at their core and user experience as an equal citizen to core functionality. The evolution of the proprietary and open-source developer infrastructure stack, and the assist by AI, has resulted in a 100X increase in the total addressable market and developer productivity while delivering value to customers in hours and days versus months. The ultimate winners in this space are still emerging, and we believe most organizations will continue to arm and empower developers to own larger portions of budget to build the applications of the future. Madrona works with founders developing open-source and proprietary solutions to help them build and capture the hearts and minds of the next generation of developers.
Deepgram’s
Scott Stephenson
on revolutionizing voice AI and building a developer tool 
Pulumi’s
Joe Duffy
on bringing more power to developers 
Statsig’s
Vijaye Raji
on joining OpenAI and building for the AI era Developer Platforms & Tools
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Clerk is the drop-in authentication and user management solution for the modern web, tuned for React and Next.js.Initial Investment2023Clerk is the drop-in authentication and user management solution for the modern web, tuned for React and Next.js. -
Esper offers a DevOps SaaS platform for dedicated devices. As the industry’s leading solution for Android DevOps, Esper is on a mission to let software teams ship without worrying about the hardware. Esper’s device infrastructure enables developers, mid-market organizations, and enterprise fleets of 100,000+ devices to deliver their software as a service. Esper has rapidly- growing global customer adoption among some of the world’s most innovative major brands in retail, hospitality, logistics, healthcare, education and more.Initial Investment2020Esper offers a DevOps SaaS platform for dedicated devices. As the industry’s leading solution for Android DevOps, Esper is on a mission to let software teams ship without worrying about the hardware. Esper’s device infrastructure enables developers, mid-market organizations, and enterprise fleets of 100,000+ devices to deliver their software as a service. Esper has rapidly- growing global customer adoption among some of the world’s most innovative major brands in retail, hospitality, logistics, healthcare, education and more. -
OpenHands is the open, secure, and model-agnostic platform for cloud-based software agents. OpenHands automates real engineering work asynchronously so teams ship faster, safer, and with complete control. Built on an open-source foundation with an enterprise-grade, containerized runtime, OpenHands scales from a single agent to thousands, integrates with your existing toolchain, and gives organizations full visibility and governance across every run. Learn more at OpenHands.dev.Initial Investment2025OpenHands is the open, secure, and model-agnostic platform for cloud-based software agents. OpenHands automates real engineering work asynchronously so teams ship faster, safer, and with complete control. Built on an open-source foundation with an enterprise-grade, containerized runtime, OpenHands scales from a single agent to thousands, integrates with your existing toolchain, and gives organizations full visibility and governance across every run. Learn more at OpenHands.dev. -
Temporal is an open-source microservices orchestration engine for running mission-critical code at any scale.Initial Investment2020Temporal is an open-source microservices orchestration engine for running mission-critical code at any scale.
