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Blackbird Ventures portfolio

Everything we hold that Blackbird Ventures portfolio published.

Articles

The most recent 60 of 81 articles we hold from Blackbird Ventures portfolio.

Fund close $1b

A billion reasons to invest right at the very beginning

Blackbird announces its new early-stage and growth funds have brought in A$1.05 billion, reflecting on early cheques, portfolio outcomes like Eucalyptus's sale, and new international backers.

Also Dealroom·Dealroom·AFR Technology·Startup Daily·Business News Australia·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia

Under OneVentures portfolio ·leads this story in the feed

2 deals

Baseten: the whole game

Blackbird's post explaining its participation in Baseten's $1.5 billion Series F, its biggest investment yet, and why inference infrastructure will anchor the open-source AI era; notes rapid growth and senior engineering hires.

Also Dealroom

Under Blackbird Ventures portfolio ·leads this story in the feed

Exit / M&A

Goodbye, SaaS. Welcome, SaiS.

Blackbird partner Tom Humphrey argues AI panic overstates the threat to software firms, sketching four stages from bolting on models to training them, and pointing to Canva's acquisitions and Springboards' new model as proof.

Also Crikey·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily

Exit / M&A

The race is on

Blackbird partner Niki Scevak argues SaaS is not dead; winners will be companies that reinvent for AI, citing Canva's AI pivot and Kaleido acquisition, plus Heidi Health's new software category for doctors.

Also TechCrunch Australia·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia·TechCrunch Australia·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia

Pre-seed $4.5m

Investment Notes: Alloy

Blackbird's investment note announces it led Alloy Technologies' $4.5 million pre-seed round, profiling founder Joe Harris and describing the startup's software for robotics companies deploying artificial intelligence.

Also Forbes Australia·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily

Seed

Investing at Day 0 of Marloo

Blackbird partners recount backing Marloo's founders before they had settled on an idea, having led its 2024 pre-seed and now announcing its seed round.

Also marloo.com·marloo.com·Fintech News Australia·Business News Australia·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany

Exit / M&A

Looking Back to Look Forward

Blackbird partner Samantha Wong reflects on a decade of the firm's Sunrise conference and Australia's startup ecosystem, recalling Atlassian's Nasdaq listing and Aconex's float and sale to Oracle.

Also OIF Ventures portfolio·OIF Ventures portfolio·thelawyermag.com·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·LaunchVic·LaunchVic

Seed $3.5m

Investment Notes: Index

Blackbird's investment note explains why it led Index's A$3.5 million seed round with Bain Capital Ventures, Y Combinator and industry angels, profiling the planning platform built by two former Canva and Atlassian staff.

Also Startup Daily·Forbes Australia

undisclosed US$9m

Investment Notes: Lorikeet

Blackbird's note explains why it led Lorikeet's nine-million-US-dollar round alongside co-investors, describing the startup's workflow-first approach to harder support tickets and its results with Eucalyptus.

Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily

undisclosed $1.8m

Annie Liao on raising $1.8M for her unique artificial intelligence start-up at 23-years-old

Profile of Annie Liao, 23, founder of Build Club, who has closed a $1.8 million round to build an AI learning platform, tracing her path from Westpac, BCG and Aura Ventures into startups.

Also Capital Brief·SmartCompany·Forbes Australia·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily

Funding announcement

From SaaS to SaiS: A River of Inquiry into how AI is unlocking vertical SaaS

A Blackbird partner argues AI has revived vertical software by turning hard-to-sell customers into product-led buyers, noting the firm recently backed three such startups and recalling Aconex's sale to Oracle.

Also buildxact.com

2 deals

Investment Notes: Marqo

Blackbird announces it led AI search startup Marqo's seed round, joined by January Capital, The Creator Fund and angel investors, having previously backed the company's pre-seed in May 2022.

Also TechCrunch Australia·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany

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