Catena Labs, which is looking to build an artificial intelligence-native bank, has raised $18 million.
Sean Nevill, a co-founder of Circle, is the CEO at Catena Labs.
Catena has already published an open-source agent commerce kit that outlines protocols for AI-driven e-commerce. The startup plans to use its new funding to accelerate development of its AI-native financial institution and its underlying technology.
“AI agents will soon conduct most economic transactions, but today’s financial systems are unprepared and resistant to interactions with automated intelligence,” Neville said in a press release. “That’s why we’re building an AI-native financial institution that will give AI agents, and the businesses and consumers they serve, the ability to transact safely and efficiently.”
The funding round was led by a16z crypto and included participation from Breyer Capital, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, Pillar VC, and Stanford Engineering VF.
Circle invented the USDC stablecoin.