One of Australia’s biggest venture capital firms, Blackbird, has collected A$1.05 billion ($680 million) for its sixth fund, which is the biggest venture capital fund-raising in Australia and New Zealand.
Blackbird said in a statement on Tuesday that the fund attracted both new foreign investors Adams Street Partners, Schroders, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management, as well as current Australian backers such as the sovereign Future Fund and the pension funds Hostplus, Aware Super, and HESTA.
According to Blackbird, the involvement of major international organizations demonstrated the increasing interest from abroad in the two nations’ technological firms.
The sum just barely surpasses Blackbird’s prior fund, which raised over A$1.03 billion in 2022. Since launching its initial A$29 million fund in 2013, Blackbird has significantly increased the size of its funds.
A growth fund and an early-stage fund each receive a portion of the capital. Blackbird stated that it would continue to invest early on, frequently before a business has a product or income. The company noted that pre-seed or seed stage investments accounted for 96% of the initial investments from its prior early-stage fund. Last year, it made investments ranging from A$149,000 to A$60 million.
According to Blackbird, its portfolio is now valued at over A$12 billion. With little over A$3 billion invested, it has given investors a cash return of more than A$2.25 billion.
Notable investments in Canva, Airwallex, Heidi Health, Halter, and Baseten were highlighted by Blackbird.
According to Blackbird partner Samantha Wong, the bigger fund would enable the company to continue investing as businesses expanded and supporting founders at an early stage. Building ownership over time is reflected in its multi-stage concept. The executive continued.
