Ridge AI Raises $2.6M to Fix SaaS Analytics

Seattle startup Ridge AI is emerging from stealth with $2.6 million in pre-seed funding led by Madrona, backed by a roster of analytics luminaries including Tableau co-founder Chris Stolte and former Tableau CEO Mark Nelson. The company was co-founded by Ellie Fields, a 12-year Tableau veteran, and UW professor Jeffrey Heer, creator of widely used open-source visualization tools. Ridge AI targets SaaS companies struggling to deliver interactive analytics to their customers, offering AI-powered dashboards and data agents that can be embedded directly into products. The tool combines visual dashboards with conversational AI agents sharing a common dataset, helping SaaS firms prove their value to customers amid growing software spending scrutiny.