Sterling Raises NZ$3.8M Seed Round Led by Blackbird

RNZ reported that Blackbird led the round, with participation from technology-sector figures whose backgrounds include Xero, Vend, Pushpay and Trade Me. The New Zealand Companies Register independently lists Blackbird Ventures 2025, LP as holding 244,330 of Sterling AI Limited's 1,373,365 shares, or 17.79%. The register verifies Blackbird's ownership position but does not state the round value, so the NZ$3.8 million figure remains attributed to RNZ.

Sterling AI Limited was incorporated in October 2025. RNZ identified Nik Wakelin and Ludwig Wendzich as co-founders and reported that the new capital is intended to support growth across three markets rather than a separate product launch.

Sterling describes its software as a finance-operations system that works across accounting, payroll, email, spreadsheet and approval workflows. Its public materials show tasks such as filing invoices, reconciling transactions, preparing management reports and routing work for human review. The company also emphasizes scoped permissions, action histories and approval controls, which matter when automation touches financial records.

RNZ reported company claims that Sterling has been available to users since March and has completed about 1,200 hours of finance work for customers. It named Manukora, Storypark and Echelon among its clients. Those usage and customer statements are company-reported operating signals, not independently audited performance measures.

The round is a regional early-stage bet on moving generative AI beyond chat interfaces and into repeatable back-office work. Accounting workflows are attractive automation targets because they contain high volumes of structured records, recurring deadlines and reviewable decisions, but they also demand traceability and clear human accountability.

For practitioners, Sterling's expansion is worth watching for evidence that agent-style systems can maintain reliable controls across multiple business applications. The funding itself does not establish accuracy, cost savings or large-scale adoption; those questions will depend on measured customer outcomes as the company grows.