# Blackbird Ventures (slim)

> Blackbird Ventures's investments in AI tools on Anchor Terminal, Airwallex, Baseten, Canva, Celeris (Marqo Inc) and 1 more, with each listing's grade and the founders behind it.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/blackbird-ventures/index.md (~1,150 tokens) · this version ~1,030 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/blackbird-ventures/index.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/investors/blackbird-ventures/
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-28
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Venture firm.

Website: https://www.blackbird.vc

## Companies on Anchor Terminal

- **Airwallex**, Series F, May 2025, through Blackbird
  - [Airwallex Spend and Issuing](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/airwallex.md), graded B, 68.3/100
  - Source: https://www.airwallex.com/global/newsroom/airwallex-raises-usd300-million-at-a-usd6-2-billion-valuation-to-build-the-future-of-global-banking
- **Baseten**, Series E, January 2026, Growth round, June 2026
  - [Baseten](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/baseten.md), graded B, 66.7/100
  - [elephant-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elephant-1.md), graded D, 47.6/100
  - [mammoth-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mammoth-1.md), graded D, 47.7/100
  - Source: https://www.baseten.co/blog/series-e/
- **Canva**, through Blackbird
  - [Canva REST APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/canva.md), graded B, 65.3/100
  - Source: https://www.blackbird.vc/portfolio
- **Celeris (Marqo Inc)**
  - [Celeris-1 Decision](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/celeris-1-decision.md), graded D, 49.5/100
  - Source: https://celeris.ai/about
- **Leonardo.Ai (Canva subsidiary)**, through Blackbird
  - [Leonardo.Ai API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/leonardo-ai.md), graded F, 37.7/100
  - Source: https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/29/canva-acquires-leonardo-ai-to-boost-its-generative-ai-efforts/

## Where they invest

- Decision models, 3
- Spend management & procurement, 1
- GPU & serverless compute, 1
- Programmatic asset production, 1
- Image generation, 1

## Founders they backed

- [Jack Zhang](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/jack-zhang/), Airwallex
- [Lucy Yueting Liu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/lucy-yueting-liu/), Airwallex
- [Jacob Dai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/jacob-dai/), Airwallex
- [Max L.](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/max-l/), Airwallex
- [Ki Lok Wong](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/ki-lok-wong/), Airwallex
- [Tuhin Srivastava](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/tuhin-srivastava/), Baseten
- [Amir Haghighat](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/amir-haghighat/), Baseten
- [Phil Howes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/phil-howes/), Baseten
- [Pankaj Gupta](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/pankaj-gupta/), Baseten
- [Tom Hamer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/tom-hamer/), Celeris (Marqo Inc)
- [Jesse Clark](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/jesse-clark/), Celeris (Marqo Inc)
- [JJ Fiasson](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/jj-fiasson/), Leonardo.Ai (Canva subsidiary)
- [Peter Runham](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/peter-runham/), Leonardo.Ai (Canva subsidiary)
- [Jachin Bhasme](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/jachin-bhasme/), Leonardo.Ai (Canva subsidiary)
- [Sami Ede](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/sami-ede/), Leonardo.Ai (Canva subsidiary)
- [Chris Gillis](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/chris-gillis/), Leonardo.Ai (Canva subsidiary)
- [Ethan Smith](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/ethan-smith/), Leonardo.Ai (Canva subsidiary)

## Questions

### Which AI tools has Blackbird Ventures invested in?

Anchor Terminal lists Airwallex, Baseten, Canva, Celeris (Marqo Inc) and Leonardo.Ai (Canva subsidiary) backed by Blackbird Ventures.

### How are Blackbird Ventures's companies graded?

On Anchor Terminal's benchmark, Airwallex Spend and Issuing (B, 68.3), Baseten (B, 66.7), elephant-1 (D, 47.6), mammoth-1 (D, 47.7), Canva REST APIs + MCP (B, 65.3), Celeris-1 Decision (D, 49.5) and Leonardo.Ai API (F, 37.7).

Investors are named from the companies' own announcements, the investors' own pages, Y Combinator's company pages, public filings and news reports of a round, each with its source.