Australia’s largest venture capital fund, Blackbird Ventures, is using its financial heft to pay sky-high prices for stakes in many more tiny companies than its rivals, exposing a split in strategy across the country’s biggest start-up investors.

Blackbird’s play, backed by its $1 billion in recent funds, has frustrated competitors who are poorer or have been wary of paying high prices since the collapse of the COVID-driven technology boom last year.