Michael Tolo
Partner
Blackbird
Michael Tolo is a partner at Blackbird, the venture capital firm, based in Melbourne, Australia. He backed Heidi, the AI scribe and assistant for clinicians, at its pre-seed in 2021, and he believes the greatest risk a venture investor can take is not taking enough risk.
From Palo Alto to Melbourne
Before joining Blackbird, Tolo was an investor at Playground Global in Palo Alto, California, and at Future Fund in Melbourne, according to his Blackbird profile. He says he works with "unreasonably ambitious founders who are looking to solve the most complex and consequential problems," and that no idea is too early for him.
He lists synthetic biology, embedded commerce, compute, healthcare, and robotics as the ideas that excite him most.
Backing Heidi From the Pre-Seed
Blackbird invested in Heidi at its pre-seed in 2021, and in September 2026 it led the company's Series C at a $900 million valuation. "We've backed Tom and the team since their pre-seed in 2021 and our conviction is greater than ever," Tolo told Forbes Australia, which reported that Blackbird calls Heidi its fastest-growing investment ever.
Heidi now supports 2.8 million patient visits a week across 190 countries and 110 languages, and its annual recurring revenue grew from $1 million to $50 million in two years, according to the company's announcement.
Writing Blackbird's Investment Notes
Tolo writes many of Blackbird's public investment notes. His healthcare and science notes cover Coherence Neuro, which works where oncology meets neural engineering, and Remedy Robotics, which Blackbird says completed the world's first fully remote robotic surgery for neurovascular intervention.
He also wrote Blackbird's case for Baseten, the AI inference company that Blackbird calls its largest investment ever.