Catena Labs Raises $18 Million to Build AI-Native Financial Institution for Agents

AI startup Catena Labs said in a Tuesday (May 20) news release that it has raised $18 million in a funding round to build the first regulated, AI-native financial institution for the agent economy.

The artificial intelligence startup was co-founded by former Circle co-CEO Sean Neville, who co-created the USDC stablecoin, per the release.

The funding round was led by a16z crypto, with participation from Breyer Capital, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, Pillar VC, Stanford Engineering VF and prominent angel investors, including NFL athlete Tom Brady, Twitch Co-founder Kevin Lin and former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano.

Catena is building a financial institution from the ground up to serve AI agents — software programs that can autonomously conduct transactions, make decisions and interact with humans and businesses in the digital economy, according to the release.

“AI agents will soon conduct most economic transactions, but today’s financial systems are unprepared and resistant to interactions with automated intelligence,” Neville said in the release.

“That’s why we’re building an AI-native financial institution that will give AI agents, and the businesses and consumers they serve, the ability to transact safely and efficiently.”

An AI-native financial institution differs from traditional banks in that it is built to support the workflows, identities and transactions of artificial intelligence systems. These AI agents can do things like make purchases and even receive payments autonomously — activities beyond the scope of most traditional financial institutions.

“Today’s financial infrastructure creates significant friction for AI agents, with slow, fragile, and expensive legacy payment rails constraining the potential for AI commerce,” Catena CTO and Co-founder Matt Venables said in the release.

Catena said it is building a bridge to existing payment networks but believes that for “AI commerce to truly flourish, new infrastructure is essential,” according to a company blog post.

To help developers and businesses incorporate agentic financial services, Catena also released its Agent Commerce Kit, an open source set of protocols and patterns for agent identity, payments, receipts and human oversight.

Catena plans to offer regulated financial services, including stablecoin-based payment rails with near-instant settlement and low fees. These services aim to power machine-speed transactions while addressing emerging challenges in fraud, identity verification and compliance.

“The rise of AI agents is reshaping what’s possible in online commerce, making it clear that we need a financial layer built specifically for how these systems operate,” Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner at a16z crypto, said in the news release.

Read more: Agentic AI Is Quietly Reshaping the eCommerce Funnel

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