Natural raises $30M to reinvent payments for AI agents – and take on Stripe
AI agents are performing complex tasks but still need humans for payments. Natural raised $30M to build payment infrastructure designed for autonomous AI agents, challenging traditional financial rails.
AI agents are starting to execute more sophisticated tasks, such as identifying vendors that can deliver freight, comparing prices, and messaging the vendor to organizing a delivery. But when it comes to making a payment for the shipment, they still need to involve a human.
Today’s financial sector relies on financial rails, the underlying infrastructure that moves money and information between banks, businesses, and consumers. But these financial rails were built for human-initiated transactions, not autonomous AI agents. For example, traditional payment systems like credit cards and ACH rely on human authorization for transactions, which slows down agents engineered to work autonomously.