Kite Raises $18M to Build Trust Infrastructure for Autonomous AI Agents
AI Agent News
Kite AI closed an $18 million Series A led by PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst, bringing total funding to $33 million for infrastructure addressing a fundamental bottleneck: how autonomous AI agents authenticate, transact, and coordinate with each other at machine speed.
The funding signals growing recognition that current human-centric payment and identity systems create friction points for agent-to-agent commerce. As enterprises deploy more autonomous agents for tasks ranging from procurement to customer service, the infrastructure gap between agent capabilities and transactional requirements has become a deployment blocker.
The Agent Trust and Payment Bottleneck
Traditional enterprise systems assume human users with credit cards, bank accounts, and manual verification processes. Autonomous AI agents operating at millisecond speeds require different infrastructure primitives: cryptographic identity verification, programmable payment logic, and audit trails for compliance.
Current workarounds like virtual credit cards introduce latency, chargebacks, and fraud risks that break automated workflows. When an AI procurement agent needs to purchase services from another AI service provider, existing payment rails add seconds of delay and percentage-point fees that make micro-transactions economically unfeasible.
PayPal Ventures partner Alan Du frames the challenge: “Payment has proven to be a challenging technical gap. Solutions like virtual cards provide only short-term workarounds. Latency, fees, and chargebacks further complicate things.”
Blockchain-Native Agent Architecture
Kite’s solution centers on what the company calls “Kite AIR” (Agent Identity Resolution) - a blockchain-based platform optimized for autonomous agent operations rather than human users. The architecture includes two core infrastructure components:
Agent Passport provides verifiable, multi-layered cryptographic identity with operational guardrails. Unlike traditional API keys, Agent Passport enables complex permissions and policy enforcement across agent interactions.
Agent App Store allows agents to discover, access, and pay for services including APIs, data sources, and commerce tools directly. Transactions settle on-chain using stablecoins with programmable permissions, enabling new economic models like agent-to-agent metered billing and high-frequency trading.
The platform builds on the team’s experience with large-scale distributed infrastructure. CEO Chi Zhang previously led core data products at Databricks, while CTO Scott Shi built real-time AI infrastructure at Uber and was a founding engineer on Salesforce Einstein AI.
Enterprise Production Validation
Kite already has live integrations with PayPal and Shopify, enabling merchants to become discoverable to AI shopping agents. The system processes purchases settled on-chain with full transaction traceability - addressing enterprise requirements for audit trails and compliance.
Steve Everett, Head of Global Market Development at PayPal Crypto and Digital Assets, explains the commercial value: “Enabling simultaneous, atomic settlement, governed by smart contracts that allow for real-time tracking and auditing across highly performant blockchain protocols will be the killer combination that delivers the promises of programmable payments.”
The production deployments validate technical capabilities including sub-millisecond settlement times and elimination of chargeback fraud risks that plague traditional payment systems when adapted for agent use cases.
Infrastructure Market Shift
Kite’s funding reflects broader infrastructure investment patterns targeting agent deployment bottlenecks. Recent funding rounds including InstaLILY’s $25M for vertical agent platforms and Maisa AI’s $25M for enterprise reliability suggest VCs are backing infrastructure plays over pure capability demonstrations.
The blockchain approach differs from traditional fintech solutions by providing native programmability for agent interactions. Rather than adapting human payment systems for machines, Kite builds machine-native infrastructure that can scale to support swarms of agents conducting micro-transactions.
General Catalyst’s Marc Bhargava sees market timing significance: “Kite is doing the foundational work we believe will define how agents operate tomorrow. They are building the rails for the machine-to-machine economy.”
Looking Forward: Agent Economy Infrastructure
Kite plans to expand integrations across commerce, finance, and data platforms over the next 12 months. The company is targeting partnerships with enterprise software providers where agent-to-agent transactions represent workflow optimization opportunities.
The broader infrastructure trend suggests 2025 will see continued investment in platforms that solve coordination challenges between autonomous systems. As agent deployment scales from experimental pilots to production workflows, infrastructure requirements shift from human oversight to machine-native coordination.
The emergence of specialized infrastructure for agent interactions represents a fundamental shift in enterprise technology architecture. While platforms like Overclock focus on orchestrating human-agent workflows through natural language playbooks, companies like Kite are building the underlying rails for agents to coordinate independently - creating complementary infrastructure layers for the evolving agent economy.
Sources: Fortune, PayPal Newsroom