Blackbird, among the largest venture capital firms in Australia, has raised A$1.05 billion ($680 million) for its sixth fund, the largest venture capital fund-raising recorded in Australia and New Zealand.

In a statement on Tuesday, Blackbird said the fund drew existing Australian backers, including the sovereign Future Fund and the pension funds Hostplus, Aware Super, and HESTA, alongside new international investors Adams Street Partners, Schroders, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

The participation of large global institutions reflected growing overseas interest in technology companies from the two countries, Blackbird highlighted.

The total narrowly exceeds Blackbird’s previous fund of about A$1.03 billion, raised in 2022. Blackbird has grown its fund size sharply since its first A$29 million fund in 2013.

The capital is split between an early-stage fund and a growth fund. Blackbird said it would keep investing at the earliest stages, often before a company has revenue or a product. The firm pointed out that 96 percent of the first investments from its previous early-stage fund were made at pre-seed or seed stage. Its smallest investment last year was A$149,000 and its largest was A$60 million.

Blackbird said its portfolio was now worth more than A$12 billion. It has returned more than A$2.25 billion in cash to investors on just over A$3 billion invested, at a net internal rate of return of 32 percent over 14 years.

Blackbird highlighted notable investments in Canva, Airwallex, Heidi Health, Halter, Baseten, among others.

Samantha Wong, a partner at Blackbird, said the larger fund would let the firm keep backing founders early and continue investing as companies grew. Its multi-stage model reflects a practice of building ownership over time. the executive added.

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