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Atlassian
Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar co-founded Atlassian in 2002, creating Jira, Confluence, and a suite of collaboration tools that became essential...
Atlassian
Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar co-founded Atlassian in 2002, creating Jira, Confluence, and a suite of collaboration tools that became essential infrastructure for software teams globally. The company went public on Nasdaq in 2015 and has sustained a market capitalization above $50 billion. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar each own substantial equity stakes, generating the wealth that now fuels their separate but often aligned private investment activities, primarily focused on decarbonization and technology. While Atlassian itself is an operating company, not a family office, the co-founders deploy their personal capital through distinct vehicles. Cannon-Brookes invests via Grok Ventures and the Cannon-Brookes Family Office, focusing heavily on gigawatt-scale renewable energy projects, grid infrastructure, and venture-stage climate tech. Farquhar invests through Skip Capital, with a broader mandate that includes technology infrastructure, data centers, and select climate ventures. Notable deployments include Cannon-Brookes' attempted takeover of AGL Energy to accelerate coal retirement and his stake in Sun Cable, the massive solar transmission project (per AFR, 2022). The geographic footprint is anchored in Australia, with expanding exposure across Southeast Asia and North America. Team size and aggregate deployment across the co-founders' private vehicles are not publicly consolidated. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar operate independently, with distinct investment teams and no formal pooled family-office structure. In recent activity, Cannon-Brookes successfully blocked AGL's demerger plan in 2022 and installed new board leadership aligned with accelerated decarbonization. Farquhar's Skip Capital has ramped up direct infrastructure and data center investments, reflecting a conviction that energy and compute are convergent themes. What distinguishes this architecture from a conventional family office is the scale and conviction of single-operator concentrated bets. Cannon-Brookes has demonstrated a willingness to wager a material fraction of his balance sheet on contested energy transitions, a posture more common in activist hedge funds than in diversified family offices. Farquhar's parallel but operationally separate vehicle creates a dual-track deployment model with no cross-collateralization, offering the flexibility of strategic alignment without governance entanglement.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2002
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Oceania
Country
Australia
City
Sydney
Corporate office
Sydney, Australia
Additional offices
San Francisco, United States
Principals
Mike Cannon-Brookes
Co-Founder and Co-CEO
Scott Farquhar
Co-Founder and Co-CEO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who controls investment decisions across the Atlassian co-founders' capital?
Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar run completely separate investment offices with independent teams and mandates. Cannon-Brookes deploys through Grok Ventures and his family office, Farquhar through Skip Capital. Despite co-founding Atlassian together, their private investment capital is not pooled, and each maintains full discretion over his own balance sheet.
Is Atlassian Corp structured as a family office?
No. Atlassian Corp is a publicly traded enterprise software company. The co-founders' private investment activities are conducted through entirely separate family office vehicles — Grok Ventures for Cannon-Brookes, Skip Capital for Farquhar — which are not subsidiaries or divisions of Atlassian. The wealth originates from their equity holdings in Atlassian stock.
What is the scale of the Grok Ventures and Skip Capital portfolios?
Neither Grok Ventures nor Skip Capital publicly discloses aggregate AUM. The scale is inferred from the co-founders' Atlassian equity stakes, which have historically been valued at several billion dollars each. Cannon-Brookes has deployed capital in concentrated positions — including a roughly $650 million stake in AGL Energy and backing of the $20 billion Sun Cable project — that imply a portfolio in the single-digit billions.
How do the co-founders source climate and energy transition deals?
Sourcing is primarily direct and operator-driven, leaning on the co-founders' public profiles, policy engagement, and existing portfolio networks. Cannon-Brookes has taken activist positions in public companies like AGL Energy to force strategic change. Both founders cultivate deep relationships within Australian infrastructure, renewables, and grid-scale storage ecosystems, often co-investing alongside government entities and project-finance partners.
Do Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar co-invest, or are their vehicles entirely separate?
Their vehicles — Grok Ventures and Skip Capital — are legally separate and make independent investment decisions. There is no formal co-investment mandate between them, though their public positioning on climate and technology creates thematic overlap. No disclosed structure requires joint approval or shared capital calls.
What is Skip Capital's investment mandate compared to Grok Ventures?
Skip Capital, Farquhar's vehicle, has a broader technology infrastructure mandate that includes data centers, venture capital, and select energy transition assets. Grok Ventures is more concentrated on climate and decarbonization, with a focus on large-scale renewable generation, transmission, and electrification. Both operate with high conviction and concentrated position sizes rather than diversified fund-of-funds approaches.
What happened with the AGL Energy activist campaign?
In 2022, Mike Cannon-Brookes acquired an 11% stake in AGL Energy, Australia's largest carbon emitter, and blocked the company's proposed demerger that would have created a separate coal-heavy entity. He then successfully campaigned to replace the board, including the chairman, and secured commitments to accelerate the closure of coal-fired power stations (per AFR, 2022).
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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