Mike Cannon-Brookes’ investment stocks are soaring

Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes’ investment stocks are soaring.

Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes. Picture: John Feder.

Although it is very close to making him and his business partner the two richest people in Australia, Atlassian is not even the best-performing stock in Mike Cannon-Brookes’ portfolio this year.

The billionaire, who co-founded the software firm with Scott Farquhar, has an eclectic mix of public and private investments, ranging from start-up technology firms to energy ventures and fintech companies.

The investments are widespread and diverse, and Cannon-Brookes has been an active investor in many of his holdings.

While tech darling Atlassian has made him and Farquhar extremely wealthy even before their respective 40th birthdays later this year — so much so that they could briefly have been considered top of The List — Australia’s Richest 250 last week — Cannon-Brookes’ Grokco investment company also has shares in some fast-growing ASX-listed companies.

One is Redbubble, a design marketplace provider that has surged in value since flagging last week that it will post its maiden full-year operating profit.

The result, due towards the end of the month, would be the first positive one for it since floating on the ASX in 2016.

The announcement sent Redbubble shares surging and, after a further increase in value during trading on Monday, the stock is up about 57 per cent cent since July 1.

This makes Redbubble the sixth-hottest stock among those on the ASX All Ordinaries Index so far in the new financial year.

That gives Cannon-Brookes the title of having the best-performing reasonably large ASX stock among the 250 members of The List in the past month or so.

Redbubble shares are up more than 60 per cent since January 1 as well. At that performance level, Redbubble has increased in percentage terms even more than Atlassian, which is breaking all sorts of records for an Australian company listed on the Nasdaq in the US.

At current trading levels, both Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar each have shareholdings in Atlassian worth $US9.07 billion ($13.34bn), which would put their individual wealth above both long-time billionaires Anthony Pratt and Gina Rinehart.

$1.43 Redbubble closed up 4.5¢ p

Pratt topped The List with wealth of $13.14bn at the end of March, while Rinehart was second at $13.12bn.

It would be hasty to write either of them off just yet, with Pratt’s Pratt Industries cardboard box company posting record profits in the US this year and Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting no doubt enjoying the benefit of rising iron prices throughout most of 2019.

But Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar are closing in fast. Last week, the Atlassian duo’s wealth was even higher when shares briefly hit an all-time high of $US149.80.

At that level the pair’s shareholdings were each worth about $14.15bn.

Cannon-Brookes has put at least some of his wealth into a diverse range of investments. On the listed front, his Grokco investment company has shares in Marley Spoon, the home-meals kit group which recently made a profit in Australia for the June quarter — the first one since establishing here in mid-2015.

Marley Spoon shares are up 33 per cent since January 1 and have benefited with renewed investor interest since announcing in early June that supermarket giant Woolworths was making a $30 million investment for a 9.1 per cent stake.

Cannon-Brookes also has shares in Israeli tech firm Dragontail Systems, which floated on the ASX in December 2016 and is down 20 per cent this year.

Another one of his investments could also soon be headed for the Australian bourse, with payments technology firm Tyro Payments recently flagging it could pursue a listing within 18 months.

Cannon-Brookes bought into Tyro in 2015 when it raised about $100m in capital from investors, which at the time gave the company a $500m value.

He also has investments in US driverless vehicle company Zoox, having taken a director role when reportedly stumping up more than $100 million when leading a $US500m series B funding round in July last year.

As well, Cannon-Brookes was part of a $130m line of credit for energy-financing start-up Brighte in July.

The Cannon-Brookes portfolio also includes a share in children’s pocket-money app Spriggy and San Francisco-based Dgraph Labs, where last week he joined a $16.8m funding round that also included Australian investors Blackbird Ventures and Airtree Ventures.

He also owns the $100m Fairwater estate in Sydney’s affluent harbourside suburb of Point Piper.