AI agents are starting to perform more sophisticated tasks, such as identifying suppliers that can deliver cargo, comparing prices, and sending messages to the supplier to arrange a delivery. But when it comes to paying for shipping, they still need to involve a human.

Today’s financial sector depends on financial pathways, 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 such as credit cards and ACH rely on human authorization for transactions, slowing down agents designed to work autonomously.

A new startup, Natural, is tackling the problem by redesigning the entire system from scratch. And now it has $30 million in fresh capital to carry out an ambitious plan that will put it in direct competition with giants like Stripe.

About a year ago, Natural co-founder and CEO Kahlil Lalji realized that AI agents were evolving faster than the existing financial architecture, which cannot support tasks like autonomously paying a supplier, collecting payments, or transacting with each other.

Lalji has a background in banking and finance, but as he prepared to launch another startup he hoped to avoid the sector. His previous startup, Ivella, a YC-backed banking and financial product for couples, was sold in 2023 to Earnin, where he worked as an engineer for two years. He told TechCrunch that the financial sector had burned him after the zero interest rate policy era ended.

And yet, Lalji could not ignore the opportunity.

“I kept coming back to it,” he said. “It seems obvious that agent payments will be structurally the most important problem. [in the] space.”

Lalji partnered with Eric Wang, his co-founder at Ivella, and Walt Leung, former engineering manager at Nextdoor, and founded Natural in 2025. The startup positions itself as an agent orchestration layer that enables AI agents to move and store funds. By integrating Natural’s infrastructure, businesses can enable their agents to make autonomous payments, collect funds, and transact with both humans and other agents.

Natural caught the attention of Kirsten Green, founder and managing partner of the venture capital firm Forerunner. Green, whose company focuses on consumer experiences and the future of commerce, led its $30 million Series A round into the company, bringing the company’s total funding to $40 million.

Green was drawn to Natural’s broader ambitions. The startup is not only focused on helping agents pay and pick up products on behalf of consumers, but is also trying to reinvent payments infrastructure, including how disputed transactions are handled.

Although Natural has operated in a beta test until now, Lalji told TechCrunch that the startup has made enough critical architectural decisions to give it a “good shot” at competing with traditional companies like Stripe, which is also racing to redesign payment lanes for AI agents.

Lalji hopes that Natural’s rapid development speed will allow it to leapfrog established giants and build the payments infrastructure that will serve as the financial backbone of AI agents. The startup’s mission has attracted senior staff who previously worked at fintech giants Stripe, Ramp and Square.

Although Natural sees Stripe as its main competitor, several other startups, including DCVC-backed Skyfire Systems, are trying to reinvent the payments backbone for AI agents using US dollar-backed stablecoins. While Natural plans to incorporate stablecoins into its architecture, it is also building support for traditional bank payments.

While there is a fierce race to dominate the field, Lalji is betting that the entire market could grow significantly if transactions are made at computer speed rather than human speed. “The number of payments that can occur in the world can be two, three or four orders of magnitude larger than the number of payments that exist today,” he said.