Madrona backs UW computer science startup PetraVM

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Madrona backs UW computer science startup PetraVM

John Cook on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 7:59pm PST

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Madrona | Software | Startups | Venture Deals

Two University of Washington professors have raised $1.5 million from Madrona Venture Group and WRF for a new startup company called PetraVM. Founded last year by the UW's Mark Oskin and Luis Ceze, the startup is creating new ways for developers to write more reliable "multi-threaded code."

An older version of the company's bare bones Web site offers a much more digestible description of what they are up to: "Our mission is to make computers fun and useful again by minimizing your frustration while using them."

Well, if they can solve that problem, they are probably on to a big business opportunity.

As part of the deal, Madrona's Matt McIlwain joined the company's board.

The deal marks the latest investment for Madrona in a UW spin out, following past investments in companies such as Farecast, Physware and Impinj.

UPDATE: A link to the company's new Web site has been added. In addition to Oskin and Ceze, Peter Godman -- who previoulsy led engineering efforts at Isilon -- has joined as vice president of engineering.

About John Cook

John Cook is co-founder and executive editor of TechFlash. He has been covering the technology beat for nearly a decade, writing about startups, entrepreneurs and venture capital, most recently serving as a reporter/blogger at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

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