Morgan Stanley and Schroders have participated in Australia and New Zealand’s largest venture capital round after backing technology investor Blackbird Ventures’ latest fund. Blackbird, which has carved a reputation as an early-stage investor in a number of the region’s breakout tech start-ups including graphics software developer Canva and fintech Airwallex, has closed a A$1.05bn ($750mn) fund that marks the largest amount raised for the region’s venture capital sector. The round was backed by existing Blackbird investors including superannuation funds and Australia’s sovereign wealth fund but also by a number of international funds including Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Schroders and Adams Street Partners as the appeal of Australian and New Zealand tech has grown in stature.

Blackbird partner Samantha Wong told the FT that international investors had historically assumed that businesses founded in the region would be limited to the local market. But the success of companies such as telehealth provider Eucalyptus, which was sold to a US rival for A$1.6bn this year, and autonomous driving start-up Zoox, which was sold to Amazon in 2020 for A$1.5bn, had “definitively” proved this was no longer the case. "These are logos that we’re not really seeing elsewhere in other venture portfolios," she said of the international growth potential coming out of Australia and New Zealand’s start-up sector. Blackbird has traditionally made early-stage investments in emerging companies with global potential.

It has since “doubled down” on those stakes with follow-on investments. In the case of Canva, it originally invested A$250,000 and has maintained its position as the software company’s biggest external investor — with a stake of about 10 per cent — as the business has grown in value. Canva, which has been lined up as a potential Nasdaq IPO candidate, is now valued at $35bn internally by Blackbird, lower than the $42bn value attributed last year.

More recent investments include New Zealand agricultural technology company Halter and AI infrastructure group Baseten co-founded by Australian mathematicians. At $143mn, the investment in Baseten is the largest single cheque Blackbird has written, part of a fundraise valuing the start-up at $13bn, according to Wong. The Blackbird round is the latest foreign-backed fundraising for Australia’s small venture capital industry after US institutional investors backed a $420mn Airtree Ventures fund last year.