PayPal backs Kite in $18M funding to power agentic AI payments

September 4, 2025 • FinTech News

Kite, a company building trust infrastructure for AI-driven autonomous payments, has raised $18 million in a funding round. PayPal Ventures led the investment, which saw participation from numerous prominent firms. These included General Catalyst, 8VC, Samsung Next, Alumni Ventures, and the SBI US Gateway Fund. Additionally, Vertex Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Avalanche Foundation, GSR Markets, and LayerZero joined the round. Further support came from Hashed, HashKey Capital, Animoca Brands, Essence VC, and Alchemy. This investment brings Kite’s total funding to $33 million.

Introducing the AIR Platform for Autonomous Agents

The company, previously known as Zettablock, recently launched its Agent Identity Resolution (AIR) platform. This innovative solution enables autonomous AI agents to authenticate, transact, and operate independently. It combines three key components: programmable identity, stablecoin-native payments, and policy enforcement. Moreover, the entire system operates on a blockchain specifically designed for autonomous agent use cases.

The AIR platform features two core components. First, the Agent Passport provides verifiable identity and operational guardrails. Second, the Agent App Store serves as a marketplace where agents can access paid APIs, data, and commerce tools. These capabilities are already active through integrations with major platforms like Shopify and PayPal. As a result, merchants can now seamlessly connect with AI-powered shopping agents.

Solving the Autonomous Transaction Challenge

Chi Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Kite, explained the need for a new system. He stated that current human-centric systems cannot support the scale or speed required for autonomous micro-transactions. “Autonomous agents will dominate future digital economies,” Zhang said. “They need structured, provable data and programmable payments to operate at machine speed. Kite AIR makes this possible.”

Through publicly available APIs, PayPal and Shopify merchants can now join Kite’s Agent App Store. This integration makes them discoverable to AI agents. The platform settles payments on-chain using stablecoins, ensuring full traceability, millisecond-level speed, and low-cost execution.

Building a New Economic Model for AI Commerce

Alan Du, a partner at PayPal Ventures, highlighted Kite’s important role in solving payment challenges in the emerging agentic economy. “Virtual cards and legacy solutions are merely short-term fixes,” Du explained. “They suffer from latency, high fees, and fraud risks. Kite bridges this gap with stablecoin-based settlement and programmable trust. Consequently, it unlocks new economic models including agent-to-agent billing, micro-subscriptions, and high-frequency trading.”

With this investment, PayPal and other backers envision a future where autonomous AI agents play a central role in commerce. This vision depends on fast, trustless, and fully programmable payments that can support machine-to-machine transactions at scale.