Morado Ventures

Morado Ventures Research Investment Thesis Morado Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 2010, headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The firm's investment thesis is anchored in what they call the "data-fueled revolution" — they back founders who are "systems builders" architecting entirely new operating systems for legacy industries. They believe passionately in entrepreneurs with unique expertise who are tackling complex technological problems using both software and hardware solutions. Their mission is to support early-stage data-fueled companies with the potential to solve significant challenges in industries ripe for disruption. The firm has increasingly focused on bringing technology to the physical world — what they call "virgin ground" where technology has yet to fully infiltrate. From bringing AI to poultry farming (Flox) to automating recycling (Everest Labs) to digitizing construction finance (KonstructIQ), the pattern is consistent: massive essential industries plagued by inefficiency, awaiting a data-driven catalyst. Sector Focus Morado Ventures focuses on several key technology verticals: AI and Machine Learning — Core to their thesis, applied across industries Data Infrastructure — Systems that capture and leverage data at scale Industrial IoT — Connecting physical industries to digital intelligence Robotics and Autonomy — Automation of physical-world processes Computer Vision — Visual intelligence for industrial applications Health Tech — Data-driven healthcare solutions Enterprise Applications — Their largest sector by deal count (43 investments) Consumer — Selective consumer investments (24 investments) FinTech — Financial technology and embedded finance Their portfolio spans 119 companies across Enterprise Applications, Consumer, Enterprise Infrastructure, High Tech, and FinTech sectors. Stage Focus Morado is primarily a seed-stage investor. According to Tracxn data: Seed: 53 investments (primary focus, average round size $2.85M) Series A: 18 investments (average round size $11.2M) Series B: 3 investments Series C: 1 investment (typically follow-on) They prefer to invest at the earliest institutional stage and occasionally participate in follow-on rounds for existing portfolio companies. Check Size Based on their seed-stage focus and fund size (less than $150M AUM across 2 funds): Seed: Estimated $250K - $2M typical initial checks Follow-on: Selective participation in later rounds Average seed round size in their portfolio is $2.85M (their share would be a portion) Fund Structure and AUM Morado Ventures operates through multiple fund vehicles: Morado Venture Partners (Fund I) Morado Venture Partners II, L.P. (Fund II) Total AUM: Less than $150 million across 2 private funds (per SEC filings) The firm is registered with the SEC (CRD# 168743) Recent Activity Morado has maintained steady deployment with 3 new investments in the last 12 months: February 2026: Quill Notes — Seed round ($6.5M round, co-invested with Basis Set Ventures) November 2025: Scribe — Series C ($75M round at $1.3B valuation, co-invested with StepStone Group). Scribe automates process documentation and workflow analysis. March 2025: Bolto — Seed round (co-invested with General Catalyst) December 2024: One Bio — Series A (co-invested with Alpha Edison) November 2022: Metrist — Seed round (app monitoring for cloud computing, co-invested with Heavybit) Investment pace: averaging 2-3 first-time investments per year in recent years, with selective follow-ons. Portfolio Highlights Unicorns (2): ClassDojo — Classroom behavior feedback platform ($221M total funding, Series D stage) Zipline — Drone delivery and logistics operator IPOs (2): Rigetti Computing — Quantum computing company (NASDAQ, March 2022) Boardwalktech — Enterprise data management (TSX, June 2018) Notable Acquisitions (51 total exits): Evernote — Note-taking platform ($266M total funding, acquired) August — Smart lock and access system ($73.1M funding, acquired) Getaround — Peer-to-peer carsharing ($736M funding, acquired) Science Exchange — Acquired by Waud Capital Partners (September 2024) Tenyx — AI voice agents (acquired September 2024) Talech — POS system for SMBs (acquired by U.S. Bank, 2019) Edify Labs — Acquired May 2024 Active Portfolio: Everest Labs — AI-powered recycling automation (Series A, $16.1M) KonstructIQ — Financial operating system for construction Flox — AI for poultry farming Vena Vitals — Medical materials and data for hospitals Scribe — Process documentation automation ($1.3B valuation) Team Ash Patel, Founding Partner: Co-founder of Morado. Over 15 years of Internet experience. Former SVP of Platform Engineering, Chief Product Officer, and EVP of Audience Platform Division at Yahoo!. Built My Yahoo!, registration and login platforms, and Yahoo! Finance back-end. Developed Yahoo! Messenger back-end. Scaled engineering team to ~1,500 engineers. B.Sc. in Computer Science from Kings College, University of London. Mike Marquez, Founding Partner: Co-founder of Morado and CODE Advisors (independent full-service merchant bank). Former EVP of Strategy and Corporate Development for CBS Interactive, responsible for all business and corporate development globally. Prior to CBS, served in corporate development at Yahoo! working on acquisitions alongside Ash Patel. B.S. in Managerial Economics from UC Davis, MBA from UNC Chapel Hill. Patrick McGill, Corporate Venture Partner: Deep global corporate venture, investment, and M&A expertise. Successfully advised and launched Best Buy's Digital Media fund (with Fuse Capital), DoCoMo Capital, Telefonica Ventures. Worked with Volkswagen Group on innovation strategies. Special relationship with Dentsu Inc. Former VP Corporate Development at Verifone (active in HP acquisition for $1.2B). Early advisor to Pandora Media, Medstory (acquired by MSFT), PIXO (acquired by Sun Microsystems), and Basis (acquired by Intel). Henry Sohn, Operating Partner: Over 20 years of technology industry experience. Joined Yahoo!'s product team in 1996 as one of the earliest employees. Former VP Business Operations at DataTorrent. Former Chief of Staff & VP Business Management to CTO at Yahoo!, Chief Product Officer at Flurry, VP at Gateway.com. Degree in Sociology from UC Berkeley. Decision Process Morado operates as a small partnership with 2 founding partners (Ash Patel and Mike Marquez) making investment decisions. The firm values warm introductions — their website states that "introductions from our network are the best way to connect to us." Patrick McGill focuses on corporate venture partnerships, and Henry Sohn provides operational support to portfolio companies. Geographic Focus Primarily United States (72 of 76 first-round investments), with very selective international investments in Germany (1), India (1), Poland (1), and United Kingdom (1). Founder Preferences Morado backs "passionate entrepreneurs with unique expertise" who are: Working on hard technological problems with software and hardware Building "systems" for legacy industries (not just tools) Creating proprietary data moats that deepen over time Repeat founders with operational track records are valued highly (e.g., KonstructIQ founders previously built Talech) Technical founders with deep domain expertise in their target industry Co-Investors Frequent co-investors include AME Cloud Ventures (24 shared portfolio companies), Y Combinator, Redpoint Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Basis Set Ventures, General Catalyst, and Heavybit.