Eucalyptus
Funding

Telehealth brands startup Eucalyptus lands $50 million from Woolies, Mary Meeker & Blackbird

- April 28, 2023 3 MIN READ

Concerns over mail order weight loss brands Juniper and Pilot by Australian doctors haven’t dampened investor appetite its parent telehealth company, Eucalyptus, which has raised $50 million on a $520 million valuation. The round was backed by several existing Eucalyptus investors,  including Blackbird Ventures, the Woolworths VC fund W23, and US investor Mary Meeker’s BOND… Read more »

MoreGoodDays
Funding

Blackbird, Giant Leap back healthtech startup tackling chronic pain with $3.5 million raise

- March 13, 2023 2 MIN READ

Melbourne  healthtech startup, MoreGoodDays has raised $3.5 million for a digital solution to managing chronic pain.  The round was led by Blackbird, with support from impact fund Giant Leap, Side Stage Ventures, the Snow Foundation, and LaunchVic’s female-focused sidecar investment program, the Alice Anderson Fund.  Neala Fulia and Helena Ngo co-founded the healthtech platform to… Read more »

Phoebe Harrop, Tom Humphrey, Michael Tolo
People

VC Blackbird appoints 3 new partners

- February 21, 2023 2 MIN READ

Venture capital fund Blackbird has appointed three new general partners from within its own ranks Moving from principal to partner are  Michael Tolo and Tom Humphrey in Australia, as well as Phoebe Harrop in New Zealand. It’s just the second time in the 11 years since Rick Baker and Niki Scevak founded Blackbird that the VC has… Read more »

Darwinium founder Alisdair Faulkner
Funding

Blackbird and AirTree back anti-fraud startup from the team behind ThreatMetrix in $15.6 million Seed round

- November 7, 2022 2 MIN READ

Online fraud prevention startup Darwinium has raised US$10 million (A$15.6m) in a Seed round led by local VCs Blackbird and Airtree. The US-based customer protection platform was founded by Bondi entrepreneur Alisdair Faulkner, cofounder of cybersecurity startup ThreatMetrix, which sold in 2018 for more than A$1.2 billion (US$817m). Joining him at Darwinium is former ThreatMetrix… Read more »

Venture Capital

Blackbird builds $1 billion nest egg with record VC fund

- November 2, 2022 2 MIN READ

Venture capital firm Blackbird has raised Australia’s first $1 billion VC fund, with superannuation funds once again cornerstone investors. The announcement comes just a week after Square Peg announced it had raised $860 million for its fifth generation of funds. Combined with another $700 million raised earlier this year by Airtree. that means the country’s… Read more »

Funding

Kiwi employee experience platform Excellent raises $2 million in pre-Seed round

- September 8, 2022 2 MIN READ

New Zealand employee experience design startup Excellent has raised NZ$2 million in a pre-Seed round. ANZ VC Blackbird Ventures led the round, supported by Icehouse Ventures, Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1 ), and several other founders, including Sharesies founders Brooke and Leighton Roberts, Phase One Ventures CEO Mahesh Muralidhar, Joyous cofounder Mike Carden, Groov CEO Adam… Read more »

Funding

Proptech startup that’s more ‘Atlassian than Aconex’ raises $5.2 million

- August 1, 2022 2 MIN READ

Sydney startup Sitemate has raised $5.2 million for its no code software tools for companies in the construction sector.  The round was led by Blackbird, with participation from existing investors Shearwater Capital and angels including local tech founders Tim Doyle of Eucalyptus and Rory San Miguel of Propeller. Coincidentally, Blackbird general partner Nick Crocker was… Read more »

First AML
Funding

New Zealand anti-money laundering startup First AML raises $30 million series B

- November 2, 2021 2 MIN READ

Anti-money laundering regtech startup First AML has raised A$28.7 million (NZ$30m) in a series B. The round was led by Blackbird Ventures, with support from new investors Headline Ventures, and existing backers Pushpay founder Eliot Crowther, US firm Bedrock Capital and Kiwi VC Icehouse Ventures.  Blackbird partner Samantha Wong will join the board. The funds… Read more »

Waleed Mussa, Thomas Kelly & Yu Liu.
Funding

Doctor training platform Oscer scores $5 million seed round

- August 24, 2021 2 MIN READ

A medtech startup that helps aspiring doctors practice their clinical reasoning skills with AI-powered virtual patients has raised a $5 million seed round. The investment in Oscer was led by Blackbird, joined by January Capital, Inventures, Archangel Ventures and angel investors Brendan Hill, and Jeff Bargman and values the business at $20 million. The University… Read more »

Ajay Prakash
Funding

Blackbird backs jobs edutech startup EntryLevel as it looks to reskill the world

- August 23, 2021 2 MIN READ

Work skills retraining startup EntryLevel is gearing up for a seed raise after pre-seed funding from Blackbird Ventures saw the virtual trainer reskill more than 30,000 people in just six months. Blackbird tipped $350,000 into the cohort-based edutech startup, which has an ambition to help one billion jobseekers around the world launch their careers through… Read more »

Pasha Rayan, Tom Brunskill
Funding

Workplace skills edtech Forage raises $35 million series B

- August 20, 2021 2 MIN READ

Skills training startup Forage has raised US$25 million (A$35m) in a series B. The round was led by Blackbird Ventures, with participation from Telstra Ventures, Citi Ventures, Gaingels, Cap Table Coalition, ETF@JFFLabs and existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and FundersClub. The raise comes less than 12 months after the four-year-old Y Combinator graduate, previously known as InsideSherpa, landed a US$9.3 million series A. Forage… Read more »