Venture firm Blackbird raises A$500m fund for Australia startups

[SAN FRANCISCO] Blackbird Ventures, one of Australia's largest venture firms, has another A$500 million (S$490.3 million) to invest after raising its fourth fund.

The firm, which was one of the first investors in Australia's most-highly valued startup Canva, said in a statement that the A$500 million marks its largest fund to date. It last raised A$261 million in 2018 and has a total of A$1.3 billion in committed capital.

Blackbird said it has invested about $110 million in Canva, a graphic design business which had a US$6 billion valuation in a funding round in June. That round was led by Blackbird and Sequoia China, with participation from existing backers including General Catalyst Partners, Felicis Ventures and Bond.

Blackbird also invested in autonomous vehicle startup Zoox, which sold in June to Amazon.com for more than US$1 billion. Compliance software SafetyCulture and analytics company Culture Amp are some of its other portfolio companies.

The mission of Blackbird, which was founded in 2012, is to be one of the first to write checks to local startups founded in Australia and New Zealand said Niki Scevak, a co-founder and partner at the firm.

Atlassian, which was founded in Australia about 19 years ago and is now a US$43 billion public company, helped inspire other enterprise software startups to be started there, he said. One of Atlassian's co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes is now on the board of Blackbird's management company.

A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU

Monday, 3.30 pm

Garage

The hottest news on all things startup and tech to kickstart your week.

Sign Up

Australia's sovereign wealth fund and Greenspring Associates are some of the investors that participated in Blackbird's fund, according to its partners.

Rick Baker, co-founder and partner at Blackbird, said that even though Australia is in its first recession in 29 years, the startup investment scene remains active.

"We've seen heaps of deal flow over the last two months," said Mr Baker. He added that while some mediocre startups have struggled in the pandemic, the best businesses will still be able to raise more financing.

BLOOMBERG