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We invest in Australians with big ideas who want to be the best in the world. We provide equity capital for Seed, Series A and later stage. No cheque is too early.
We're committed to the development of our community and the strengthening of the Australian startup ecosystem. Find out more.
ambitious founders
Australia’s most
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Blackbird Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in Australians wanting to be the best in the world not the best in Australia. We provide equity capital for all stages from Seed, Series A and later stage.
We’re also pasionate about building and strengthening the Australian startup ecosystem. See our programs & initiatives.
ambitious founders
Australia’s most
Supercharging
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ABOUT BLACKBIRD
We wear t-shirts. We are true believers in founders. We believe in love at first sight. We are comfortable with the misunderstood. We think in decades not days. We will make our kids proud.
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Rick is a co-founder of Blackbird Ventures. Prior to Blackbird, Rick ran MLC’s venture capital program. Before that he co-founded two software companies: Right Party Connect, which produces notification systems for financial institutions and sold to Adeptra; and IDC Global which develops software for real estate agents.
RICK BAKER
Bill is a venture partner at Blackbird Ventures. Prior to Blackbird Bill co-founded Southern Cross Venture Partners after helping to build early stage investing at Macquarie Bank. Bill was also the CEO of Mantara, a company that makes high performance, content-based message routing systems.
BILL BARTEE
Niki is a co-founder of Blackbird Ventures. Prior to Blackbird Ventures, he founded Startmate, one of Australia’s leading accelerators. Before that he founded Homethinking, a US-based online real estate site which helps home owners choose a selling real estate agent by ranking agents on their sales history and customer reviews.
NIKI SCEVAK
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR INVESTMENT?
Here you will find everything you need to know about our investment philosophy, what we look for in founders, products, teams and markets.
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The Best in The World
We’re looking for businesses who are attacking large global markets from day one. Your customers should not know or care that you’re Australian. Customers buy because they love your product after a 30 day trial not because you hire expensive sales people that play golf and have steak dinners with senior executives. Your chosen market should be BIG, big enough for your business to generate the magical number of $100m p.a. in revenue.
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Grace Hopper, computer scientist, United States Navy Rear Admiral and inventor of the first compiler for a computer language.
The Exceptional
We’re looking for the best. No cheque is too small. We love the hungry, not the proven. We'll say hell Yes! Or No. Engineers should be everywhere. Only global from day one. No US copycats. No university spinouts. No Perth stockbrokers. No ‘Exit Strategy’ slides in your deck. No A-Holes. No gambling, no guns, no alcohol, no tobacco. Only red-blooded business models. With the relentless drumbeat of progress. Selling in 60 days. We're agnostic to trends and themes. We love high responsibility businesses. Only big markets. A business is passionate, repeat customers. And of course, for the exceptional founders, we will make exceptions.
PORTFOLIO
We look far and wide for the best, most ambitious Founders. We're incredibly proud of our portfolio and we're only just getting started!
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We’re passionate about the Australian startup ecosystem and helping the next generation of great founders.
BLACKBIRD COMMUNITY
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WorkEx
In 2015 we took on a high school student as an intern. We were able to introduce our intern to some of our startups, experts in the area he was interested in (space!) and after the program was complete he said he felt inspired energised and with a new found direction in his life. We were shocked to find that most high school students end up doing work experience at the local fish and chip shop, or with dad's friend the accountant. So we created WorkEx: a work experience program that is designed to inspire students at a crucial time in their lives.
FIRST Robotics
For any of these other programs to work, Australia needs a generation of young people who are passionate about science and technology. FIRST Robotics is the best program we've come across that encourages an interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in students from an early age. We work with FIRST Australia to help spread awareness of the program and we help them raise money to send students to the US for the international competition.
Startmate
Startmate is Blackbird's mentor driven accelerator. We find founders at the very beginning of their journey, give them an initial investment and connect them to a network of founders, entrepreneurs and investors both in Australia and Silicon Valley.
Grace Hopper, computer scientist, United States Navy Rear Admiral and inventor of the first compiler for a computer language.
The Sunrise
The Sunrise is our tribute to The Founder. It's where we tell stories, uncover truths and celebrate all that it is to be a Founder. You'll find videos, AMAs and more.
Before The Sunrise
Before you begin building your startup, you need to get your docs in order. It shouldn't be complex and expensive but it can be. It's with this in mind we've developed Before The Sunrise - a web app that helps you set up standard docs including a Shareholders Agreeement, IP Assignment Agreements and Employee Agreements. Annotations are crowd sourced and we've set these up in an attempt to create a set of affordable, transparent standards for startups.
Startmate
Startmate is Blackbird's mentor driven accelerator. We find founders at the very beginning of their journey, give them an initial investment and connect them to a network of founders, entrepreneurs and investors both in Australia and Silicon Valley.
Grace Hopper, computer scientist, United States Navy Rear Admiral and inventor of the first compiler for a computer language.
The Sunrise
The Sunrise is our tribute to The Founder. It's where we tell stories, uncover truths and celebrate all that it is to be a Founder. You'll find videos, AMAs and more.
WorkEx
In 2015 we took on a high school student as an intern. We were able to introduce our intern to some of our startups, experts in the area he was interested in (space!) and after the program was complete he said he felt inspired energised and with a new found direction in his life. We were shocked to find that most high school students end up doing work experience at the local fish and chip shop, or with dad's friend the accountant. So we created WorkEx: a work experience program that is designed to inspire students at a crucial time in their lives.
Grace Hopper, computer scientist, United States Navy Rear Admiral and inventor of the first compiler for a computer language.
FIRST Robotics
For any of these other programs to work, Australia needs a generation of young people who are passionate about science and technology. FIRST Robotics is the best program we've come across that encourages an interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in students from an early age. We work with FIRST Australia to help spread awareness of the program and we help them raise money to send students to the US for the international competition.
30 September | 7pm | Venue
Event Name
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30 September | 7pm | Venue
Event Name
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30 September | 7pm | Venue
Event Name
UPCOMING EVENTS
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231st May | 8:00am | Carriageworks
UPCOMING EVENTS
They’re contrarian. They think differently. They’re often outcasts and they have the ability to just magic things into existence. At The Sunrise Conference we’re bringing together founders from some of the most successful Australian startups to tell their stories. Join Australia’s startup community, be inspired and learn what it takes to make it in the startup game.
Nothing scheduled... sign up to be notified
UPCOMING EVENTS
HOW TO GET IN FRONT OF US
Be The Next Big Thing
We naturally take far more notice of founders introduced to us by people we trust, whether they be founders we have invested in, angel investors we have co-invested with or people we have worked with. So please, try to network to find a warm introduction.
If you can't find a warm introduction, drop us an email at contact@blackbird.vc
GET NOTIFIED ABOUT BLACKBIRD EVENTS AND NEWS
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Are You The Next Big Thing?
Thanks for signing up. We'll occasionally send you news of our investments, invites to our events and more.
You can follow us on Twitter, facebook and Linkedin. We also produce stories about great Australian startups over on The Sunrise.