Natural Raises $30M to Rebuild AI Agent Payments

Natural is raising and deploying payments infrastructure tailored for autonomous AI agents, after securing $30 million in a Series A led by Forerunner and supported by existing investors and tech leaders. The funding aims to accelerate the company’s push to enable AI agents to send and receive payments, manage funds, and transact at scale, positioning Natural to compete directly with Stripe. Founders Kahlil Lalji, Eric Wang, and Walt Leung describe agentic payments as a foundational bottleneck for the growing use of autonomous software in business, and the company is building core infrastructure such as ledgers, multi-bank settlement, fraud detection, and compliance in-house rather than relying on third parties. Natural has outlined a six-product suite and plans to roll out additional tools for payment acceptance, agent-issued cards, credit features, and billing designed specifically for AI-powered applications, with a team expansion to meet rising demand. Since its 2025 founding, Natural has grown to a small, focused team and attracted notable investors and industry figures who see AI agents as pivotal financial actors in the global economy. The push comes amid broader fintech interest in redefining payments for autonomous systems, signaling a potential shift in how money moves between agents, vendors, and platforms.