The Brief:
Andrew Wierda was a 26-year-old tax adviser at EY when he got sick of clunky research tools and built his own. That project is now Nylon, backed by Blackbird.
Nylon just signed its 600th Australian firm, adding 100 in June alone, and the startup is now raising $17m.
Two years ago, Andrew Wierda was a tax adviser at EY and EY Law, stuck using research tools that hadn’t changed in decades.
So he built his own.
That tool is now Nylon, an Auckland-based AI startup backed by Blackbird, the venture firm that made an early bet on Canva.
I was a tax adviser at EY doing difficult technical work with research tools that hadn’t really changed in decades. I built the first version for myself because I wanted it to exist. Now some of the firms we used to compete with are customers.
Nylon, formerly known as Law Cyborg, answers detailed tax and law questions for accountants and lawyers, drawing on primary Australian source material like legislation, ATO rulings and case law. Every answer comes with hyperlinked citations and a confidence score, so practitioners can check the work in seconds instead of redoing it themselves.
Australia is now Nylon’s fastest-growing market. The company counts 600 Australian firms as clients, including Hall Chadwick, RSM and KHQ Lawyers, after signing 100 new firms in June alone. It’s used by close to 2,000 firms across Australia, New Zealand and the UK, including two of the Big Four.
Nylon’s rise has been quick. After signing its first 40 clients, the company raised an angel round in 2024 from prominent New Zealand investors. A year later came $2m in pre-seed funding from Blackbird.
Now Wierda is chasing the next stage, with Nylon seeking $17m in equity funding to support its expansion across Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Source: Nylon