San Francisco, USA — Ekhbary News Agency
A new startup named Natural has successfully secured $30 million in Series A funding, earmarking the capital to construct a novel payment infrastructure specifically designed for autonomous artificial intelligence agents. This significant investment positions Natural as a formidable challenger to established fintech behemoths, most notably Stripe, in a rapidly evolving financial landscape.
Addressing AI's Payment Gap
Current financial systems, built primarily for human-initiated transactions, struggle to accommodate the complex, autonomous operations of advanced AI agents. These agents, capable of tasks from vendor identification to delivery organization, still require human intervention for payments. Natural’s co-founder and CEO, Kahlil Lalji, observed this critical gap, realizing that AI's evolution outpaced existing financial architecture. He founded Natural in 2025 alongside Eric Wang and Walt Leung to tackle this fundamental issue, despite his initial reluctance to re-enter the finance sector after a previous venture.
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Ambitious Vision and Market Potential
Natural aims to provide an agent orchestration layer, enabling AI entities to autonomously manage funds, make payments, and transact with both human users and other agents. Kirsten Green of VC firm Forerunner led the $30 million Series A round, bringing Natural's total funding to $40 million. Green was reportedly drawn to the startup's broader ambition: not merely facilitating agent-driven purchases but fundamentally reinventing payment infrastructure, including dispute resolution. Lalji contends that the market for payments could expand by "two or three or four orders of magnitude" if transactions occur at machine speed, underscoring the immense potential for growth.
Competing with Industry Giants
While Natural has operated in a beta trial, its leadership believes architectural decisions made thus far give it a strong chance against incumbents like Stripe, which is also reportedly adapting its systems for AI. The startup's rapid development pace is a strategic advantage, attracting senior talent from major fintech companies. Natural plans to integrate stablecoins while also supporting traditional bank payments, ensuring a comprehensive approach to what many see as the future of digital commerce. This fierce competition, for what it's worth, highlights a pivotal shift in how financial transactions will be processed.
