Currently holding around $10 billion in equity across companies, including some of Australia’s early unicorns, plucky Blackbird Ventures is arguably now Australasia’s largest and most active venture capital firm. We are thrilled to be hosting the Blackbird team at UCE/ThincLab on Wed 25th May.
The company has taken a founder-centric approach to every investment deal since launching in 2012. Building an engaged community of innovators, entrepreneurs and investors has been at the heart of the enterprise. This has been a point of difference for the “startup VC” since day one. Until the pandemic, Blackbird regularly hosted the Sunrise event for Aussie startups and has been a frequent supporter of events, online talks and roadshow gigs across the ditch in New Zealand. Blackbird also runs the StartMate accelerator programme. The team are on a New Zealand-wide roadshow tour and are visiting Christchurch as key sponsors of Electrify Aotearoa.
It’s surprisingly difficult to summarise the company’s investment thesis considering their highly diverse portfolio ranges from alternatives foods to software-as-a-service to precious metals recycling. What all of these investments generally have in common however are gnarly enterprise, cultural or environmental problems that call for solutions from committed and talented teams. Blackbird already has a Canterbury connection, having invested in Christchurch based auto parts marketplace Partly during 2021, alongside other luminaries such as Rocket Lab co-founder Peter Beck.
Could your startup be the next big thing? Join us and the Blackbird team next week for a presentation and networking session.
