Blackbird Ventures: The Firm That Backed Canva First Just Raised Australia's Biggest-Ever Fund

Every ecosystem has one firm whose early bets define it. In Australia, that's Blackbird Ventures. Founded in Sydney in 2012 by Niki Scevak and Rick Baker, Blackbird wrote the first institutional cheque into Canva in 2013 — and remains the design giant's largest shareholder. When a firm spots Canva, Airwallex, SafetyCulture and Culture Amp early, founders pay attention.

Blackbird's creed is simple and stated on its own site: it invests in companies, not rounds — backing wild-hearted founders with wild ideas from the very beginning and at every stage of the journey to come. That philosophy has now been funded at unprecedented scale: in August 2026, Blackbird closed its sixth fund at A$1.05 billion (about $680 million), the largest venture capital fundraise ever recorded in Australia and New Zealand.

The new fund drew longstanding Australian backers — the sovereign Future Fund and pension giants Hostplus, Aware Super and HESTA — alongside new international institutions Adams Street Partners, Schroders and Morgan Stanley Investment Management, signalling growing global appetite for ANZ technology. The capital is split between an early-stage fund and a growth vehicle, and the strategy hasn't changed: Blackbird keeps investing at the earliest stages, often before a company has revenue or a product. Fully 96% of first investments from its previous early-stage fund were made at pre-seed or seed. Cheques have ranged from as little as A$149,000 to A$60 million.

The numbers explain the confidence: Blackbird's portfolio is now worth more than A$12 billion, it has returned over A$2.25 billion in cash to investors on just over A$3 billion invested, at a net internal rate of return of 32% over 14 years. Across ~190 companies backed, notable names include Canva, Airwallex, Zoox, VeVe, SafetyCulture, Culture Amp, Heidi Health, Halter and Baseten. Fund V, at about A$1 billion in 2022, was already a record at the time; Fund I in 2013 was a mere A$29 million.

Beyond capital, Blackbird runs the Foundry Fellowship, bringing technical talent into its orbit — a community play that reflects how the firm sources: engineers and builders first. The partnership includes Samantha Wong (who led the Fund VI raise), Rick Baker, Nick Crocker and Niki Scevak, with offices across Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.

Who should pitch: Ambitious founders building global technology companies from Australia or New Zealand — from software to space. Blackbird explicitly wants the earliest conversation: pre-seed, pre-revenue, pre-product is its home turf.