Blackbird Ventures portfolio

A billion reasons to invest right at the very beginning

Blackbird announces its new early-stage and growth funds have brought in A$1.05 billion, reflecting on early cheques, portfolio outcomes like Eucalyptus's sale, and new international backers.

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Why we fell for the founders building sport's data layer: our investment in Superstat

Blackbird's post explains why it led Superstat's seed round alongside Startmate and angel backers, praising the founding trio's decade-long shared focus and rapid early growth in amateur basketball analytics.

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Meet the inaugural Foundry Fellows

Blackbird introduces the twelve engineers, mathematicians and researchers chosen for the first Foundry Fellowship, a program connecting technical people with founders and investors across Australia and New Zealand.

When two portfolio companies join forces: Tracksuit acquires Hall

Blackbird's blog post announces portfolio company Tracksuit has bought Hall, an AI brand-visibility startup the firm backed at pre-seed in 2023; Hall founder Kai Forsyth and his team have joined Tracksuit.

Baseten: the whole game

Blackbird's post explaining its participation in Baseten's $1.5 billion Series F, its biggest investment yet, and why inference infrastructure will anchor the open-source AI era; notes rapid growth and senior engineering hires.

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Announcing Marloo’s $10M Series Seed

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The same mission. A different mountain

Blackbird partner Rick Baker recalls backing Canva's founders in 2013 and argues its 2026 AI launch extends that founding purpose to a new frontier.

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Goodbye, SaaS. Welcome, SaiS.

Blackbird partner Tom Humphrey argues AI panic overstates the threat to software firms, sketching four stages from bolting on models to training them, and pointing to Canva's acquisitions and Springboards' new model as proof.

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Investment Notes: Halter Series E

Blackbird's investment note explains why it backed Halter's US$220 million Series E at a US$2 billion valuation, recounting the farm-collar company's growth since the firm led its Series B in 2021.

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Four years on: How our valuation policy has held up

Blackbird's operating chief reflects on four years of the fund's independent, quarterly valuation process, citing the Eucalyptus acquisition and its returns as proof the 2022 policy endured.

Investment Notes: Baseten Series-E

Blackbird's investment note sets out why the firm joined Baseten's $300 million Series E with IVP, Capital G, Nvidia and Greylock, praising the inference startup's customer culture and its purchase of Parsed.

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The race is on

Blackbird partner Niki Scevak argues SaaS is not dead; winners will be companies that reinvent for AI, citing Canva's AI pivot and Kaleido acquisition, plus Heidi Health's new software category for doctors.

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Investment Notes: Adora Seed

Investment Notes: Ivo Series B

Blackbird's post explains why it led Ivo's US$55 million Series B with five co-investors, citing the legal-AI company's product expansion, customer growth, and adoption by major corporates.

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2025 Year in Review

Blackbird's annual letter recaps its 2025 deployment, cash returns, community programs and foundation grants, and introduces Jessica Tulp as the newest addition to its investing team.

Investment Notes: Gilmour Space Series E

Blackbird's Rick Baker recounts backing rocket firm Gilmour Space from its 2017 Series A to a newly closed A$217 million Series E at a valuation above US$1 billion.

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Investment Notes: Elyos

Blackbird's post explains why it led Elyos's Series A with PiLabs, YC and 468 Capital, profiling the AI phone-agent startup for trade businesses, its traction and its three founders.

Investment Notes: Coherence Neuro

Blackbird's investment note recapping its backing of Coherence Neuro and the neural implant startup's development milestones, institutional collaborations, and path toward first-in-human glioblastoma trials.

Investment Notes: Wonder Studios

Blackbird partners reflect on their early pre-seed backing of AI entertainment studio Wonder Studios, covering its client projects, original shows and StoryEngine tooling since that first investment.

Investment Notes: Heidi Series B

Blackbird's investment notes announce its backing of Heidi's Series B alongside Point72 Private Investments, describing the AI medical scribe's rapid growth, enterprise traction, and international expansion.

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Investment Notes: Enhance Labs Pre-Seed

Blackbird's investment note announces a pre-seed backing of Enhance Labs, an early-stage AI startup, and outlines its product approach and founding team.

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Investment Notes: Alloy

Blackbird's investment note announces it led Alloy Technologies' $4.5 million pre-seed round, profiling founder Joe Harris and describing the startup's software for robotics companies deploying artificial intelligence.

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Investing at Day 0 of Marloo

Blackbird partners recount backing Marloo's founders before they had settled on an idea, having led its 2024 pre-seed and now announcing its seed round.

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Our efforts to close the gender investment gap

Blackbird shares results from its third year tracking how many women-led teams reach its investment committee, reporting FY25 gains in backing female founders, a market comparison with Cut Through Venture, and new sourcing partnerships.

Investment Notes: Halter Series D

Blackbird's investment note announces it joined Halter's US$100 million Series D, a round Bond led with NewView also coming aboard, praising Halter's growth and market position across three countries.

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Looking Back to Look Forward

Blackbird partner Samantha Wong reflects on a decade of the firm's Sunrise conference and Australia's startup ecosystem, recalling Atlassian's Nasdaq listing and Aconex's float and sale to Oracle.

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What it's like to combine motherhood with running a startup

Three founder mothers, behind Sunroom, Sense of Self and More Good Days, describe balancing startups with parenting; More Good Days' Neala Fulia recalls her first raise overshooting expectations, with Blackbird backing.

Investment Notes: Springboards

Blackbird's note describes its new lead investment in Springboards, a Noosa, Queensland AI platform for advertising creatives, covering its product, early adopters, and founding team.

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Investment Notes: Factor House

Blackbird partners explain why the firm's 2022 fund led Factor House's $5 million seed round, profiling the Melbourne developer-tools startup, its Kafka and Flink management products, revenue growth and customers.

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Investment Notes: Index

Blackbird's investment note explains why it led Index's A$3.5 million seed round with Bain Capital Ventures, Y Combinator and industry angels, profiling the planning platform built by two former Canva and Atlassian staff.

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Investment Notes: Lorikeet

Blackbird's note explains why it led Lorikeet's nine-million-US-dollar round alongside co-investors, describing the startup's workflow-first approach to harder support tickets and its results with Eucalyptus.

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'I'm really uncomfortable with certainty': Meet Michelle Gilmore

Blackbird's blog interviews Juno founder Michelle Gilmore about her AI conversation product, its early adopters, and the $2.8 million raised to scale it.

Investment Notes: Clutch

Blackbird's note explains its decision to lead Clutch's $2 million pre-seed round, citing the fashion-glue brand's organic social growth, strong Priceline sales, and upcoming United States retail launch.

La Foundary co-founder Anh Van blends art and mycelium science for sustainable packaging

Profile of La Foundary co-founder Anh Van, who grows mycelium from food waste to create sustainable packaging and art, ahead of future fundraising plans.

2024 Year in Review

Blackbird's annual review letter recaps a year of investing: sums deployed across dozens of rounds, distributions to its investors, four new investment-team members introduced, and foundation and community program highlights.

Annie Liao on raising $1.8M for her unique artificial intelligence start-up at 23-years-old

Profile of Annie Liao, 23, founder of Build Club, who has closed a $1.8 million round to build an AI learning platform, tracing her path from Westpac, BCG and Aura Ventures into startups.

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Sunroom Co-Founder Michelle Battersby on knowing your strengths and the power of intuition

Interview with Sunroom co-founder Michelle Battersby on her path from Citibank and Bumble to Kic and Sunroom; Blackbird partner Nick Crocker recalls backing the company.

Investment Notes: Atticus

Blackbird announces its investment in Atticus's $10.8 million raise and profiles the startup's founding team, product craft, and enterprise customers.

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From SaaS to SaiS: A River of Inquiry into how AI is unlocking vertical SaaS

A Blackbird partner argues AI has revived vertical software by turning hard-to-sell customers into product-led buyers, noting the firm recently backed three such startups and recalling Aconex's sale to Oracle.

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A Blackbird Takes Flight

Blackbird partner Samantha Wong is handing leadership of the firm's New Zealand arm to Phoebe Harrop and reflects on building Blackbird Aotearoa, its fundraising, portfolio and lessons from Kiwi founders.

Completing the cycle for LPs

Blackbird's investor relations lead reflects on its limited partners, recalls the A$29 million first fund and A$1 billion returned to early backers, and flags her move to part-time as the firm seeks a replacement.

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David Booth joins Blackbird Aotearoa

Blackbird has hired On Deck co-founder David Booth for its New Zealand investing team in an EIR role; the post recounts his career and On Deck's roughly $100 million raise.

A Note From Sam on Kiki

Blackbird partner Samantha Wong responds to recent press about Kiki, explaining why the firm backed the subletting marketplace, how it supports founders through pivots, and its work on funding gender diversity.

2023 Year In Review

Blackbird's yearly letter recaps 2023: 38 investments worth $189 million across Australian and New Zealand startups, heavy AI and deep tech deployment, community programs, and open investment-team roles.

Investment Notes: Clove

Blackbird announces it led Clove's US$2.75 million pre-seed round. Founders Anna Guerrero and Sam Killin, formerly of Canva, are building a recipe creation and discovery platform ahead of a beta launch.

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Investing in More Women and Non-Binary Founders: Part 2

Blackbird shares a six-month progress update on its push to back more women and non-binary founders, covering pipeline data, program outcomes, targets and bias-reduction changes to its investment processes.

How To Be An Investor at Blackbird

Blackbird publishes the internal growth framework it uses to develop and assess investment team members, shares lessons from rolling it out, and opens a permanent application process for Principal and Associate investor roles.

Operator Spotlight: Tyler Brown, Partly

Blackbird interviews Tyler Brown about moving from space science into a technical role at automotive data company Partly, covering the firm's data platform work and startup culture, and promoting its Lilypad jobs program.

Investment Notes: Marqo

Blackbird announces it led AI search startup Marqo's seed round, joined by January Capital, The Creator Fund and angel investors, having previously backed the company's pre-seed in May 2022.

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Foundry Mentor: David Bell, Remedy Robotics

Blackbird interviews Remedy Robotics co-founder Dave Bell about his move from medicine to surgical robotics and his mentoring in its Foundry program, noting Foundry applications are open.

Investment Notes: Kiki

Blackbird partners explain why the fund led a seed round in Kiki, a subletting marketplace born in New Zealand, profitable during its Sydney phase, now launching in New York.

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Operator Spotlight: Travis James

Blackbird interviews Blinq growth operations manager Travis James about his path from Apple and Uber to an early-stage Melbourne startup, including his time at Ento before its acquisition.

The Next Giants Cohort? 60% women founded

Blackbird commits its Giants community to 60% female or non-binary founding teams, opens the next cohort's applications on July 31, and recalls backing Giants alumni More Good Days, Sauce and Cotiss.

Spotlight On: Flavia Tata Nardini, Fleet Space Technologies

Blackbird interviews Fleet Space Technologies chief executive Flavia Tata Nardini on her path from European space bodies to founding the satellite startup, recalling its Series B and C rounds and A$350m valuation.

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Spotlight On: Ross Chaldecott, Kinde

Blackbird interviews Kinde co-founder Ross Chaldecott on lessons from Shopify, Atlassian and Campaign Monitor, Kinde's mission, its authentication product, and the large seed round behind its compound platform build.

A different kind of legal career at Blackbird

Blackbird impact associate Alissa Lucas recounts leaving corporate law for an in-house legal role at the venture firm, her shift into impact work, and an open analyst position on her old team.

Investment Notes: Cotiss

Blackbird announces it led Cotiss's pre-seed round. The procurement software startup for small and medium teams, started by three founders, has released the first version of its platform.

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Spotlight On: Tim Doyle, Eucalyptus

Blackbird interviews Eucalyptus co-founder Tim Doyle about the telehealth firm's evolving mission, patient safety practices, regulatory advocacy, and lessons from his earlier career, including his time at Koala.

Spotlight On: Helena Ngo, MoreGoodDays

Blackbird's interview with MoreGoodDays co-founder Helena Ngo covers her corporate brand career, meeting co-founder Neala Fulia in Startmate's 2021 Founder Fellowship, and how the chronic-pain healthtech startup wins customers.

Investment Notes: Sumday

Blackbird's investment note announcing it led Sumday's $2M pre-seed round, profiling the Tasmanian startup's carbon accounting software for accountants and its three co-founders.

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