Blackbird

The future only ever exists in the imagination first. 🌅 Sunrise exists to stretch yours - to show you what's already being built at the edges of what feels possible, and to remind you that the world is shaped by people willing to dream it differently. 📣 The first conversations that will take you there have landed. 🎟️ Explore the lineup & get your tickets 👉 thesunrise.live 🌅 Sunrise Australia 2026 🗓️ Thursday 30 April 📍 Carriageworks, Sydney #SunriseAUS26

When the stage lights dim, Sunrise lingers a little longer. ✨ Stick around Carriageworks for the Sunset Afterparty, presented by our friends @AWSstartups. Where the day softens into evening with drinks, music, nibbles, and a chance to connect with fellow travellers before embarking on your next journey. 🎟️ Get your tickets 👉 thesunrise.live 🌅 Sunrise Australia 2026 🗓️ Thursday 30 April 📍 Carriageworks, Sydney #SunriseAUS26

The magic of Sunrise doesn’t only live on stage. It shows up in the spaces between - where conversations spill over coffee, unexpected encounters arise, and new connections start forming. ✨ At Sunrise, the @stripe Recharge Space is where you'll find those moments. Swing by for free coffee to refuel, charging stations for tired devices, hands-on demos, and a place to keep the conversation going. 🎟️ Get your tickets 👉 thesunrise.live 🌅 Sunrise Australia 2026 🗓️ Thursday 30 April 📍 Carriageworks, Sydney #SunriseAUS26

🌅 Some futures feel impossible - right up until someone starts building them. Sunrise gathers the people doing exactly that. Our next wave of speakers is here - people building things that once sounded improbable and now simply sound ambitious. 📣 Taking the Sunrise stage: ✨ @_Timdoyle , CEO & Co-founder / Eucalyptus ✨ Geoff McQueen, Founder / @accelo & worksights AI ✨ Maxine Minter, General Partner / @Coventuresvc ✨ Charlie Gearside, YouTuber & Co-founder / @gearside & Eucalyptus ✨ Orsolya Toth-Pal, Founder / Debate Club ✨ @JosephNWalker, Host / The Joe Walker Podcast ✨ Arushi Srivastava, Associate Director, Client Services / @TheTradeDesk ✨ @nikiscevak, Co-founder / @blackbirdvc If you’ve been feeling the pull - this is your reminder that your people will be in the room. 🎟️ Get your tickets 👉 thesunrise.live 🌅 Sunrise Australia 2026 🗓️ Thursday 30 April 📍 Carriageworks, Sydney #SunriseAUS26

🌅 Thinking about joining us at Sunrise? Here’s a look back at last year. Sunrise isn’t just a festival. It's a mirror and a myth-machine. A place where founders, operators, and creatives gather - to share ideas, find their people, and stretch the edge of what feels possible. 🎟️ Get your tickets 👉 thesunrise.live 🌅 Sunrise Australia 2026 🗓️ Thursday 30 April 📍 Carriageworks, Sydney #SunriseAUS26

At Blackbird, we spend a lot of time thinking about the futures founders are building - and the responsibility that comes with shaping them. Pledge 1% is one way that responsibility turns into action. It’s a global movement inviting companies to contribute a small portion of what they have - time, product, profit or equity - toward causes that matter to them. As we gather the startup community for Sunrise Australia 2026, we’re encouraging founders and teams to think beyond what they’re building, and toward what they’re giving back. Blackbird is a proud supporter of Pledge 1%. If you’re building something with long-term impact in mind, this is one place to start. 👉 Learn more pledge1percent.org/sunrise26

🌅 At Sunrise, possibility becomes visible - and ambition grows. Our next wave of speakers is here - builders and dreamers expanding the edge of what feels possible. 📣 Joining us at Sunrise Australia 2026: ✨ Guillaume Princen, International Head of Startups, Digital Natives & Mid-Market / @AnthropicAI @claudeai ✨ @katelyn_lesse, Head of Platform Engineering / @AnthropicAI @claudeai ✨ Angela Jiang, Head of Product, Platform / @AnthropicAI @claudeai ✨ Dr Thomas Kelly, Co-founder & CEO / @tryheidi ✨ Julia Reisser, Co-founder & Co-CEO / Uluu ✨ Michael Kingsbury, Co-founder & Co-CEO / Uluu ✨ @GeoffreyHuntley, Inventor, Engineer & Investor / Ralph Wiggum Loop ✨ Lizzie Hedding, Co-founder & Creative Director / Project Planet ✨ Tegan Lerm, CEO / Project Planet ✨ @albysjourney, Co-founder & CEO / Clovr And if you’ve been thinking about joining us, let this be the nudge. 🎟️ Get your tickets 👉 thesunrise.live 🌅 Sunrise Australia 2026 🗓️ Thursday 30 April 📍 Carriageworks, Sydney #SunriseAUS26

✨If you’ve been circling, this is the moment.✨ A softer space. Wilder dreams. Your people will be here. Earlybird tickets (20% off General Admission) close tomorrow, Wednesday 11 Feb at midnight. 🎟️ Get your tickets 👉 thesunrise.live 🌅 Sunrise Australia 2026 🗓️ Thursday 30 April 📍 Carriageworks, Sydney #SunriseAUS26

✨ Some of the most meaningful parts of Sunrise happen around the edges. ✨ Dinners. Talks. Walks. Late-night conversations. Small rooms where people find each other, and something new begins. 🌅 The Sunrise Australia 2026 Community Events Fund exists to make those moments possible. We're offering small grants ($200–$2,000) to help bring side events to life during Sunrise week - covering the real costs that make gatherings feel generous, welcoming, and human. Things like venues, food and drink, music, materials, and the details that invite people to stay a little longer. If you’re dreaming up a dinner, a talk, a workshop, or a strange little gathering of your own around Sunrise, we’d love to help you make it real. ⏰ Applications close 6 Feb, 5pm AEDT Learn more & apply here 👉 forms.gle/h7MhAzSUSef1YU… #SunriseAUS26

🌅 Sunrise is a place to rediscover how to dream ambitiously. Today, that invitation becomes real. 🎟️ Earlybird tickets for Sunrise Australia 2026 are now live - and with them, a first glimpse into the kinds of minds, worlds, and ideas that will shape this year’s gathering. 👀 Our first wave of speakers includes: ✨ Lucy Liu / President & Co-Founder, @airwallex ✨ Aaron Blabey / #1 New York Times Bestselling Author ✨ @WoodingtonBen / Co-Founder & CEO, @coherenceneuro ✨ @DStrachman / Founder & GP, @1517fund ✨ Jae Lubberink / Writer + Growth Manager at Eucalyptus Builders, storytellers, technologists, and investors - brought together not for spectacle, but to expand what feels possible. Earlybird tickets (20% off General Admission) are available until midnight Wednesday 11 February, or until they disappear. 🎟️ Get your tickets 👉 thesunrise.live 🌅 Sunrise Australia 2026 🗓️ Thursday 30 April 📍 Carriageworks, Sydney #SunriseAUS26

⏰ Travellers, set your alarms. 📣 Next Thursday 29 Jan, discounted Earlybird tickets for Sunrise Australia 2026 drop - alongside our first speaker announcement. 🎟️👀 🐣 Earlybird tickets are limited and move fast. They will be up for grabs through 👉 thesunrise.live Join us. 🌅 Sunrise Australia 2026 🗓️ Thursday 30 April 📍 Carriageworks, Sydney #SunriseAUS26

🌅 PSA: In just two weeks, discounted Earlybird tickets to Sunrise Australia 2026 will be landing. 🎟️ These tickets are limited and sell out fast. Don't want to miss out? Sign up now for exclusive early access (before they're released to the public). 👉 blackbirdventures.typeform.com/SunriseAUS26 🌅 Sunrise Australia 2026 🗓️ Thursday 30 April 📍 Carriageworks, Sydney #SunriseAUS26

Have you heard the news? 🌅 Sunrise Australia returns on 30 April 2026. And this year, we're levelling up. We’ve launched 3 new initiatives to supercharge connection, creativity, and accessibility👇 🎪 $10,000 Community Side Events Fund 🎪 (Applications are open. Learn more & apply by 6 Feb 2026 👉 forms.gle/bhejR7t95vyvtJ…) 🎟️ $90 Emerging Founder Access Tickets 🎟️ (Applications are open. Meet the criteria & apply by 16 Feb 2026 👉 forms.gle/3QCj86Tz18pBeh…) 🤝 Free Community Meetup Space at Sunrise 🤝 (Stay tuned 👀 applications open early 2026) ✨ And yes - Earlybird registration is now open! Sign up now to get first access to limited discounted tickets (before they go public in late Jan) 👉 blackbirdventures.typeform.com/SunriseAUS26 #SunriseAUS26

📣 Mark your calendar & get ready - Sunrise Australia 2026 is coming. 🌅 🗓️ Thursday 30 April 2026 📍 Carriageworks, Sydney Next year, we welcome you to a softer, stranger, dreamy Sunrise. And today, we’re opening the first doors. 🎟️ Want first access to discounted Earlybird tickets? These are limited & every year sell out fast. Register here for first dibs when they're released in January 2026: 👉blackbirdventures.typeform.com/SunriseAUS26 #SunriseAUS26

TestFlight1 — Liftoff 🚀 Today, Eris became the first #AustralianMade orbital rocket to launch from Australian soil — ~14s of flight, 23s engine burn. Big step for 🇦🇺 launch capability. Team safe, data in hand, eyes on TestFlight 2. (More pics and vids to come from the media.)

We see countless brilliant Aussie and Kiwi researchers self-select out of Foundry for multiple reasons. ➡️ Watch each myth collapse and to hear how Foundry alumni like @UnslothAI, @IcebergQuantum, On Zero and @sydekickbot refused to wait for the perfect conditions before getting started.  ⚡️Foundry hands researchers a $1 K no‑strings grant, pairs them 1‑on‑1 with Blackbird partners and battle‑tested founders and pipes in weekly deep‑tech masterclasses. All part‑time, all designed for researchers scheming to build generational companies before the ink on their thesis dries. Curious? Applications close 6th August, 5pm AEST:

👀 Applications are open for Cohort 5 of our Foundry program 🏃‍♂️ If you’re an early career researcher with a side obsession, a PhD student buried in your thesis or someone whose deep tech ideas are too wild for a grant application, this is your chance to make your bright ideas a reality. Foundry is an 8-week launchpad for researchers and early-stage tinkerers with deep tech ideas. We back you with: 💡 World class mentors who’ll push you to think bigger and move faster 🫶 A community and peers who treat “impossible” as a starting point 📚 The knowledge and tools to help you move from theory into practice 💸 A $1k grant (plus a $5k prize for the Comp Day winner) Apps close Wednesday 23 July at 5pm AEST: airtable.com/appHijZvdjR0l3…

Latest Australian Startup doco about the two teenages who built a $100m e-commerce giant! @LiamMillward was just 17 when he started Instant and recruited 19 year old co-founder 3 years later? Instant is a $100M company, has over 60 employees, a Sydney & NYC office, recently raised $18M led by @HummingbirdVC Some of what we cover: • Being rejected from Australia’s largest accelerator, then funded by it’s largest VC firm @blackbirdvc • Why @nikiscevak just had to give Liam and Will capital • Why Instant almost failed entirely 6 months in • How Liam manages now 60 people at 21-years-old… We got inside access to their journey - and it’s one of the most intense, raw, and inspiring startup stories we’ve told so far. Find the full thing in the comments!

After months in stealth, @voqo_ai has raised $800k pre-seed, led by @blackbirdvc. We’re building agentic vertical AI for real estate, voice agents that don’t just answer, they act. Huge thanks to our early adopters & the team who made it real. Full story 👇