About Blackbird Ventures
Blackbird Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2012. It is primarily based out of Surry Hills, Australia. As of Sep 2026, Blackbird Ventures is an active investor, having invested in 165 companies, with 9 new investments in the last 12 months. It primarily invests in Seed round in Australia based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from Enterprise Applications to High Tech and Retail. Most recently it participated in the $***** Seed round of OpenDebt Overall, Blackbird Ventures portfolio has seen 7 unicorns and 26 acquisitions including key companies like Airwallex, SafetyCulture and Baseten Technologies. A lot of funds co-invest with Blackbird Ventures, with names like Icehouse Ventures sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. Blackbird Ventures has team of 78 people including 22 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Seed, Series A & 3 more
Portfolio Unicorns
Blackbird Ventures' List of Top Investments
Blackbird Ventures has a portfolio of 165 companies, including 7 unicorns. Their most notable investments are in Vessev Tech and SafeStack.Their portfolio spans across Australia, United States, New Zealand and 2 more locations. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, High Tech, Retail and 31 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series A and 3 more. Here is the list of top investments by Blackbird Ventures:
1. Canva
Cloud-based collaborative design platform. It enables users to create various digital content, including social media posts, presentations, and videos, through its drag-and-drop editor. The platform provides access to thousands of templates, photos, and fonts, and offers AI-powered tools for users to enhance design abilities. It allows users to edit images for presentations, invitations, posters, flyers, business cards, and more. The platform offers pre-designed templates and effects. It also provides a stock library of photographs, illustrations, and images.
Key facts about Canva
- Founded Year: 2012
- Location: Surry Hills (Australia)
- Annual Revenue: $500M - $1B as on Dec 31, 2022
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series F
- Total Funding till date: $589M
- Employee Count: 20,257 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: T. Rowe Price, Dragoneer Investment Group and 58 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series F, May 01, 2024, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
2. Airwallex
Provider of financial infrastructure for processing payments and managing treasury. This platform enables businesses to accept payments, issue corporate cards, and manage expenses through integrated software. It facilitates currency conversion, international fund transfers, and automated billing processes. The system provides application programming interfaces for embedding financial services into other software products. It supports account management, payout distribution, and reconciliation workflows for commercial operations.
Key facts about Airwallex
- Founded Year: 2015
- Location: Melbourne (Australia)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series H
- Total Funding till date: $1.9B
- Employee Count: 2,947 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: T. Rowe Price, Baillie Gifford and 52 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series H, Jun 25, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Provider of a platform for workplace operations, safety, and compliance. The platform offers tools for inspections, audits, checklists, training, and asset management. It also provides features for task management, document management, and incident reporting. The platform includes integrations and analytics to improve workflows and identify risks.
Key facts about SafetyCulture
- Founded Year: 2004
- Location: Surry Hills (Australia)
- Annual Revenue: $100M - $500M as on Jun 30, 2024
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series D
- Total Funding till date: $298M
- Employee Count: 506 as on Aug 31, 2026
- Investors: TDM Growth Partners, Marbruck Investments and 41 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series D, Sep 09, 2024, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
4. Mercato
Online grocery delivery connecting customers with local, independent grocers. It is a platform that partners with local and culturally diverse grocers to make healthy, nutritious, and culturally relevant foods more accessible to communities. It provides independent merchants with online shopping and local delivery, bringing more business to the shops. It offers a wide selection of products, including seasonal produce, hand-cut meats, seafood, international specialties, pantry staples, bakery items, specialty beverages, artisanal cheeses, spices, seasonings, and catered meals. Customers can shop from multiple stores in the same order and schedule delivery or in-store pickup. It aims to provide access to healthy, nutritious foods sourced by local grocers, with a focus on choice and dignity. It supports local businesses and empowers communities. The platform offers features like account creation, express checkout, reordering, referral program, and personalized shopping. It is a B2C platform with a social impact.
Key facts about Mercato
- Founded Year: 2015
- Location: Brooklyn (United States)
- Stage: Series A
- Total Funding till date: $40.8M
- Employee Count: 242 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Flucas Ventures, Greycroft and 14 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, Mar 25, 2021, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Platform offering low code based ML powered application development software. It provides a library of pre trained models and allows users to create or deploy existing TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Scikit learn models, without coding. It offers drag and drop tools, integration, interactive web apps, and analytics solutions. It provides content moderation, data labeling, model evaluation, and classifying solutions.
Key facts about Baseten Technologies
- Founded Year: 2019
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series F
- Total Funding till date: $2.08B
- Employee Count: 415 as on Aug 31, 2026
- Investors: Sapphire Ventures, CapitalG and 31 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series F, Jun 22, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Blackbird Ventures' Year-on-Year Investment Trends
Blackbird Ventures has invested in 165 companies over the last 14 years, with an average of 10 new investments annually in the last 10 years. In 2025, it made 29 investments, while as of Sep 2026, it has made 18 investments in this year. Its most recent first time investment was in OpenDebt and most recent follow-on round was in Heidi.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 9 | 9 | 18 |
2025 | 15 | 14 | 29 |
2024 | 3 | 9 | 12 |
2023 | 11 | 13 | 24 |
2022 | 17 | 12 | 29 |
2021 | 15 | 12 | 27 |
2020 | 8 | 9 | 17 |
2019 | 11 | 6 | 17 |
2018 | 8 | 9 | 17 |
2017 | 6 | 5 | 11 |
Blackbird Ventures' Investments by Stage
Blackbird Ventures has made 94 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $2.97M, 26 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $11.3M, 6 investments in Series B stage with an average round size of $21.4M, 2 investments in Series F stage with an average round size of $825M and 1 investment in Series D stage with an average round size of $450M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Seed | 94 |
Series A | 26 |
Series B | 6 |
Series F | 2 |
Series D | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Blackbird Ventures' Investments by Sector
Blackbird Ventures has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, High Tech, Consumer, Vertical SaaS and Retail. Notably, it has invested in 143 Tech companies, 124 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 101 Software companies and at least 59 companies focusing on Saas.Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Enterprise Applications | 75 |
High Tech | 38 |
Consumer | 21 |
Vertical SaaS | 15 |
Retail | 14 |
Others | 141 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Blackbird Ventures' Investments by Geography
Blackbird Ventures has made most investments in Australia (64), followed by United States where it has made 36 investments.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Australia | 64 |
United States | 36 |
New Zealand | 18 |
United Kingdom | 6 |
Singapore | 3 |
Others | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Blackbird Ventures' recent investments
Blackbird Ventures has made 18 investments in 2026 so far. OpenDebt and Heidi are the latest among them.Here are the most recent investments by Blackbird Ventures:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sep 22, 2026 | Australia | Seed | 9688 | ||
Sep 22, 2026 | Australia | Series C | 9530 | [+3] | |
Aug 26, 2026 | - | Seed | 4313 | [+3] | |
Aug 20, 2026 | New Zealand | Series A | 4405 | [+5] | |
Aug 14, 2026 | New Zealand | Seed | 7670 | [+1] |
Unicorns in Blackbird Ventures' Portfolio
Blackbird Ventures has 7 unicorns in its portfolio - Baseten Technologies, Halter, Bugcrowd and others. The most recent unicorn in their portfolio is Baseten Technologies. It became a unicorn in 2025.Here is a list of unicorns in Blackbird Ventures' portfolio:
Tracxn Score | Company | Short Description | Founded year | Sector | Location | Company Stage | First Investment/ Acquisition Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
74 | Platform offering low code based ML powered application development software | 2019 | San Francisco | Series F | cmthwas | ||
65 | Revolutionizing pasture management with virtual fencing and animal monitoring technology | 2016 | Auckland | Series E | gbfcpyk | ||
68 | Provider of crowdsourced security platform offering vulnerability disclosure and penetration testing | 2012 | San Francisco | Series E | kdfigjo | ||
69 | Employee experience management platform | 2009 | Richmond | Series F | lmfqbua | ||
73 | Developer of photon-based universal quantum computers | 2015 | Palo Alto | Series E | udcntlk |
Acquired companies in Blackbird Ventures' Portfolio
26 companies from Blackbird Ventures' portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Hall in Jul 2026 by Tracksuit for $*****.Here are Blackbird Ventures' portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jul 20, 2026 | Jul 28, 2025 | Seed | 2691 | |
Jul 17, 2026 | Dec 05, 2022 | Seed | 2536 | |
May 15, 2026 | - | - | 4574 | |
Apr 08, 2026 | May 19, 2014 | Series B | 6634 | |
Feb 19, 2026 | Oct 2019 | Seed | 7493 |
Team profile of Blackbird Ventures
Blackbird Ventures has a team of 78 members including 22 Partners, 4 Venture Partners and 6 Principals located in Australia, United States and 8 more locations. Blackbird Ventures' team sits on the board of 1 company.Here is a list of top team members in Blackbird Ventures:
Name | Designation | Location | Board Memberships | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Partner | Australia | - | ||
Partner | Sydney | - | ||
Partner | Sydney | - | ||
Partner | Sydney | |||
Partner | Sydney | - | ||
Partner | Auckland | - | ||
Partner | Sydney | - | ||
Partner | New Zealand | - | ||
Partner | Palo Alto | - | ||
Partner | United Arab Emirates | - | - | |
Partner | Sydney | - |
Co-investors of Blackbird Ventures
Over the past 14 years, 693 investors have co-invested in Blackbird Ventures's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before Blackbird Ventures: Startmate, Y Combinator and 123 others have invested in rounds before Blackbird Ventures. There are 5 companies where Startmate has invested before Blackbird Ventures and 4 companies where Y Combinator has invested before Blackbird Ventures.
- Top Co-investors of Blackbird Ventures: 242 investors entered a company along with Blackbird Ventures. These include investors like Icehouse Ventures (10 companies).
- Invested after Blackbird Ventures: A total of 326 investors have invested in Blackbird Ventures's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include AirTree (8 companies), Hostplus (8 companies) and HESTA (6 companies).
Recent News related to Blackbird Ventures
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OpenDebt Secures $2 Million Pre-Seed Funding from Blackbird Ventures and AntlerAustralian FinTech•Sep 22, 2026•Blackbird Ventures, Antler, Westpac, Aignosis
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Heidi Health Secures $340 Million in Funding for AI Healthcare SolutionsTrending Topics•Sep 22, 2026•Heidi, Blackbird, General Catalyst, Blackbird and 2 others
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Azonic Secures Pre-Seed Funding for Online Crime Investigation PlatformIT Brief UK•Aug 26, 2026•Azonic, Blackbird Ventures, Antler
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Blackbird Secures $1.05 Billion Fund for Early-Stage InvestmentsStartup Daily•Aug 25, 2026•Blackbird Ventures
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Auckland's flying ferry maker Vessev lands NZ$32.6m and its first US customerEvsandbeyond•Aug 21, 2026•Vessev Tech, FlyTahoe, Blackbird Ventures, Rypples
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Kiwi AI startup Stirling raises $3.15m for finance team autopilotStartup Daily•Aug 14, 2026•Blackbird Ventures, stirling.com
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Kalshi in Talks with Sequoia, Wellington for $750 Million Funding Round at $40 Billion ValuationBitcoin Ethereum News•Aug 13, 2026•Sequoia Capital, Kalshi, ARK Investment Management, Morgan Stanley and 8 others
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Partly raises USD $50 million to expand Australia hiringCFOtech•Jul 21, 2026•Blackbird Ventures, DST Global, Partly
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AI Inference Startup Baseten Reportedly Raising $1.5B Months After Last Mega RoundTechCrunch+•Jun 19, 2026•Altimeter Capital, Spark Capital, Wellington, Baseten Technologies and 5 others
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August Robotics Raises $30M to Scale Construction Automation PlatformVentureburn•May 22, 2026•Futurefamilyoffice, GS Futures, Tanarra, Big Pi Ventures and 3 others
