James Palmer is a Principal at Blackbird Ventures who takes an unusually hands-on approach to helping Australia and New Zealand founders, publishing detailed guides on what VCs actually want and hosting invite-only community events for people considering early-stage companies. He brings a distinctive philosophy that naivety is a strength when backing unreasonably challenging problems, combined with a non-traditional path through corporate banking, strategy roles, and fund-of-funds investing before joining Blackbird directly.
About their Fund
Sectors
SaaS, AI, Space, Fintech, Deeptech / Hardware
Rounds
Pre-Seed - Series B+
Avg Check Size
Notable Investments
Blackbird Ventures was created as an ecosystem-building platform rather than a traditional fund, assembling capital from successful local tech founders who mentor and angel invest in the next generation, while organizing around long-term company relationships instead of funding rounds—investing from pre-product through hundreds of millions in follow-on capital into the same breakout companies like Canva. The firm backs Australian and New Zealand founders building global software companies that sell directly to workers rather than IT departments, leveraging the region's time zone disadvantage as a competitive advantage for product-led, self-serve business models.
Other partners at the fund
Notable Fund
Investments
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Sheets they're in
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Sheets they're Fund is in
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Popular Investors
investor name
Active in
Rounds
Avg. Check
Links
Deeptech / Hardware
Robotics
Biotech
+
12
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Unknown
Pre-Seed - Seed
Unknown
$400K - $2M
Unknown
Defense
Deeptech / Hardware
Energy
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7
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Unknown
Pre-Seed - Series A
Unknown
$100K - $5M
Unknown
Defense
Deeptech / Hardware
Energy
+
7
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Series A
Unknown
$100K - $5M
Unknown
Biotech
Health
Deeptech / Hardware
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2
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Seed
Unknown
$250K - $2M
Unknown
Climate
Deeptech / Hardware
Materials
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4
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Unknown
Pre-Seed - Seed
Unknown
$400K - $1.5M
Unknown
Deeptech / Hardware
Robotics
Biotech
+
7
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Seed
Unknown
$400K - $2M
Unknown
Deeptech / Hardware
Robotics
Biotech
+
2
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Seed
Unknown
~$750K
Unknown
Fintech
Deeptech / Hardware
Devtools
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2
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Series A
Unknown
$250K-$1M
Unknown
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