AI agents are starting to perform more sophisticated tasks, such as identifying vendors who can deliver cargo, comparing prices, and sending messages to vendors to arrange deliveries. However, when it comes to paying for packages, humans still need to be involved.
Today's financial sector relies on financial rails, the underlying infrastructure that moves funds and information between banks, businesses, and consumers. But these financial rails were built for transactions initiated by humans, not autonomous AI agents. For example, traditional payment systems such as credit cards and ACH rely on human approval of transactions, which slows down agents designed to operate autonomously.
One new startup, Natural, is tackling this problem by redesigning the entire system from the ground up. And the company now has $30 million in new capital to pursue ambitious plans to compete directly with giants like Stripe.
About a year ago, Natural co-founder and CEO Kahlil Lalji realized that AI agents were evolving faster than existing financial architectures and could no longer support tasks such as autonomously paying vendors, collecting payments, and transacting with each other.
Lalji has a background in banking and finance, which he wanted to avoid when he was preparing to launch another startup. His previous startup, Ibera, a YC-backed banking and financial product for couples, was sold to Arnin in 2023, where he worked as an engineer for two years. He told TechCrunch that he was tired of the financial sector after the end of the zero interest rate era.
Still, Lalji could not ignore this opportunity.
“I kept coming back to it,” he said. “I feel it's clear that proxy payments will be the most structurally important issue.” [in the] space. “
Lalji founded Natural in 2025 in collaboration with Ivella co-founder Eric Wang and former Nextdoor engineering manager Walt Leung. The startup positions itself as an agent orchestration layer that allows AI agents to move and store funds. By integrating Natural's infrastructure, companies can enable agents to autonomously make payments, collect funds, and transact with both humans and other agents.
Natural caught the attention of Kirsten Green, founder and managing partner of VC firm Forerunner. Green, a company focused on the future of consumer experience and commerce, led a $30 million Series A round, bringing the company's total funding to $40 million.
Green was drawn to Natural's broad ambitions. The startup is not only focused on helping agents pay for goods and checkout on behalf of consumers, but also reinventing payments infrastructure, including how disputed transactions are handled.
Natural has been operating in beta trials so far, but Larji told TechCrunch that the startup has made enough important architectural decisions to give it a “good chance” in competition with incumbents like Stripe, which are rushing to redesign payment rails for AI agents.
Lalji hopes that Natural's rapid development speed will allow it to overtake existing large companies and build a payment infrastructure that will serve as the financial backbone of AI agents. The startup's mission is attracting senior staff who previously worked at fintech giants Stripe, Lamp and Square.
While Natural sees Stripe as its main competitor, several other startups, including DCVC-backed Skyfire Systems, are looking to reinvent the payments backbone for AI agents using USD-backed stablecoins. While Natural plans to incorporate stablecoins into its architecture, it is also building support for traditional bank payments.
Although there is fierce competition for dominance in the space, Lalji is betting that the overall market could grow significantly if transactions are done at computer speed rather than human speed. “The number of payments that could potentially occur in the world could be two, three, or even four orders of magnitude higher than the number of payments that currently exist,” he said.
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