Australia’s new biggest VC fund is worth $500 million

Simon Thomsen - August 4, 2020 < 1 MIN READ

Venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures has landed support from some of the countries biggest superannuation funds as well as the Commonwealth’s Australia’s sovereign wealth fund to build a record $500 million investment fund – its fourth.

The Sydney-headquartered VC last raised $261 million in 2018 and has now placed $1.3 billion in the startup sector in Australia and New Zealand over the last eight years, most notably, more than $100 million in privately-owned design unicorn Canva for a 14% stake.

Other key investments include SafetyCulture and CultureAmp. Its most notable failure was Shoes of Prey.

Blackbird has also appointed Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes to its board.

Simon Thomsen

Simon has been editor of Startup Daily since 2019.

He hosted the Startup Daily show on streaming service ausbiz.com.au from 2020 to 2023.

He was previously associate editor of Business Insider Australia, a national restaurant critic, editor of The Good Food Guide, and newspaper proprietor during a 30-year career in journalism and publishing.

He's also an investor in early stage startups.

Simon chaired the environment committee of industry lobby group Australian Business Ltd's (now NSW Business Chamber) during the Kyoto agreement era, debating cow farts with mining execs.