Blackbird Ventures' $1.25 Billion Fundraise

A New Era for New Zealand Startups

Blackbird's Unique Investment Approach

Phoebe Harrop-Meadows: From Law to Venture

The Power of Early Stage Investing

The Flywheel Effect in New Zealand's Tech

Kiwi Founders' Edge in Startup Success

The Changing Landscape of AI in New Zealand

Education and Research: Building the Future

Educational Pathways for Tech Careers

Academic Researchers as Founders

The Kiwi Farm Boy Phenomenon

Global Ambitions from New Zealand

Policy and Prosperity in New Zealand

Closing Remarks and Next Episode Preview

Podcast Promotion

Australasian venture-capital heavyweight Blackbird has closed a record $1.25 billion sixth fund – and its New Zealand general partner Phoebe Harrop Meadows says Kiwi companies are central to its investment strategy.

The fund, described by Blackbird as the largest venture-capital raise in ANZ history, underscores the firm’s rise from a small Australian startup investor into one of the region’s most consequential backers of technology companies.

Having backed the likes of Canva, Halter, Marloo, and Partly, Blackbird has structured the new fund into two roughly equal pools: about $600 million for investments from pre-seed to Series A, and a similar amount to support companies later in their growth. 

That allows it to write the first cheque when a company is little more than a proposition, then retain firepower to keep investing as the business scales.

The Goldilocks fund

In the latest episode of The Business of Tech, Harrop Meadows explains why the unusually large fund is not simply a bigger pile of money chasing startups.

“It’s a sort of Goldilocks size,” she says, large enough to invest across a company’s life, but still built around identifying exceptional founders at the very beginning.

That is a marked contrast with the conventional division between early-stage venture funds and later-stage growth investors. The model is finding fertile ground in New Zealand. More than half of Blackbird’s new early-stage investments over the past year have been in Kiwi-founded companies, although Harrop Meadows stresses that measure is by number of companies rather than dollars invested. 

Harrop Meadows, who grew up in New Plymouth, studied law at the University of Otago, before heading to London to work at Bain & Company, then in growth-equity investing ahead of joining Blackbird in 2021, says New Zealand is like a “Galápagos island of ideas”, where founders often start companies not because startup status is fashionable, but because they have encountered a problem they feel compelled to solve. 

Listen to the full conversation with Phoebe Harrop Meadows on The Business of Tech, available on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Australasian venture-capital heavyweight Blackbird has closed a record $1.25 billion sixth fund &ndash; and its New Zealand general partner Phoebe Harrop Meadows says Kiwi companies are central to its investment strategy.
The fund, described by Blackbird as the largest venture-capital raise in ANZ history, underscores the firm&rsquo;s rise from a small Australian startup investor into one of the region&rsquo;s most consequential backers of technology companies.
Having backed the likes of Canva, Halter, Marloo, and Partly, Blackbird has structured the new fund into two roughly equal pools: about $600 million for investments from pre-seed to Series A, and a similar amount to support companies later in their growth.&nbsp;
That allows it to write the first cheque when a company is little more than a proposition, then retain firepower to keep investing as the business scales.
The Goldilocks fund
In the latest episode of The Business of Tech, Harrop Meadows explains why the unusually large fund is not simply a bigger pile of money chasing startups.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a sort of Goldilocks size,&rdquo; she says, large enough to invest across a company&rsquo;s life, but still built around identifying exceptional founders at the very beginning.
That is a marked contrast with the conventional division between early-stage venture funds and later-stage growth investors. The model is finding fertile ground in New Zealand. More than half of Blackbird&rsquo;s new early-stage investments over the past year have been in Kiwi-founded companies, although Harrop Meadows stresses that measure is by number of companies rather than dollars invested.&nbsp;
Harrop Meadows, who grew up in New Plymouth, studied law at the University of Otago, before heading to London to work at Bain &amp; Company, then in growth-equity investing ahead of joining Blackbird in 2021, says New Zealand is like a &ldquo;Gal&aacute;pagos island of ideas&rdquo;, where founders often start companies not because startup status is fashionable, but because they have encountered a problem they feel compelled to solve.&nbsp;
Listen to the full conversation with Phoebe Harrop Meadows on The Business of Tech, available on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Business of Tech, hosted by leading tech journalist Peter Griffin. Every week they take a deep dive into emerging technology and news from the sector to help guide the important decisions all Business leaders make.

Issues such as cybersecurity, retaining trust after a cyberattack, business IT needs, purchasing SaaS tools and more.

New Episodes out every Thursday. Follow or subscribe to get it delivered straight to your favourite podcatcher.

@petergnz

@businessdesk_nz

Proudly sponsored by 2degrees Business!

 

The Business of Tech, hosted by leading tech journalist Peter Griffin. Every week they take a deep dive into emerging technology and news from the sector to help guide the important decisions all Business leaders make.
Issues such as cybersecurity, retaining trust after a cyberattack, business IT needs, purchasing SaaS tools and more.
New Episodes out every Thursday. Follow or subscribe to get it delivered straight to your favourite podcatcher.
@petergnz
@businessdesk_nz
Proudly sponsored by 2degrees Business!
&nbsp;

The Business of Tech

Blackbird’s billion-dollar bet on founders

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/475e9441-a023-4ec6-ba5b-b4b900078cf3/transcript