4490 Ventures

4490 Ventures is a Madison, Wisconsin-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2014, named after the geographic coordinates of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where the firm was established by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). Co-Managing Directors Dan Malven and Greg Robinson lead the firm, with Malven previously having co-founded three VC-backed software companies and Robinson having come from Peninsula Ventures. The firm invests $1 million to $15 million per deal, with a sweet spot of $5 million to $8 million, leading rounds in what it calls "Connected Software" — companies more akin to proprietary data, analytics, or hardware-enabled businesses than traditional purpose-built software. The portfolio spans 36 companies across enterprise SaaS, software, and health technology, with 16 acquisitions including Marketo, Feedburner, Ticketsnow, and Avid Ratings (acquired by ECi Solutions in November 2024). Active portfolio companies include Audience.ai, Cortex, EatStreet, Fluree, HealthBridge, Level Ex, Trainual, Rentable, and Understory. Venture Partner Malcolm Thorne contributes additional deal access and mentorship. 4490 Ventures invests with geographic range across the US Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and West Coast, bringing capital alongside hands-on board involvement to founders building data-intensive software businesses. The firm's WARF heritage gives it proximity to university research and deep technical talent pools, reinforcing a thesis centered on proprietary data and software-enabled hardware rather than off-the-shelf application development.