Sapiom Secures $15 Million to Build the Payment Rails for Autonomous AI

A new wave of app creators is emerging, using conversational 'vibe coding' platforms to turn ideas into prototypes. But a stubborn roadblock remains: connecting those apps to essential external services like payment processors or SMS gateways requires technical plumbing most creators lack.

Ilan Zerbib, a former Shopify payments engineering director, is tackling that problem with his startup, Sapiom. The company is constructing a financial layer designed for AI agents, enabling them to autonomously purchase and access the software, data, and compute power they need to function. Each time an AI requires a service—sending a text via Twilio, for instance—Sapiom aims to manage the authentication and micro-payment seamlessly, without human intervention.

"Every API call is a payment. Every time you spin up a server, it's a payment," said Amit Kumar, a partner at Accel. Kumar, who has surveyed the AI payments field, believes Zerbib's enterprise-focused approach addresses a critical gap. Accel agrees, leading Sapiom's $15 million seed round with backing from Okta Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Array Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Anthropic, and Coinbase Ventures.

In practice, this means someone building an app on a platform like Lovable wouldn't need to manually set up accounts and billing for external services. Sapiom would operate in the background, with costs passed through the coding platform. While currently focused on business-to-business solutions, the technology hints at a future where personal AI assistants could independently handle transactions like ordering rides or groceries. Zerbib, however, is keeping Sapiom's immediate sights set on the infrastructure businesses need today to make autonomous AI agents a practical reality.

Source: TechCrunch