Pliant, a Berlin-based fintech, has secured $80M in Series C funding to enable artificial intelligence agents—including Claude, ChatGPT and proprietary automations—to execute business payment transactions on its platform. The company announced the oversubscribed round on Wednesday, with Seaya Nova and Speedinvest as lead investors, joined by Illuminate Financial, Motive Partners and Molten Ventures.
The capital injection will support Pliant's push into North American markets, entry into additional regions and development of its AI capabilities. The funding arrives as the company marks three consecutive years of doubling its annual business and recently surpassed $100M in annual recurring revenue.
Connecting agents to payments
Pliant's platform integrates commercial card issuance, payment accounts, currency exchange and expense tracking functionality. The company already operates its own AI agents that handle repetitive financial tasks for clients.
External agents—whether from major AI providers or built in-house by customers—can now integrate via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Once connected, these agents gain the ability to execute payment operations within broader business workflows while maintaining built-in permissions, controls and complete audit trails, according to Pliant.
Whether an established business wants AI to automate its payment processes with the right guardrails, or an AI-native company needs a licensed partner that moves as fast as it does, Pliant is built for that.
Malte Rau, Pliant CEO and co-founder
The regulated foundation
Founded in 2020, Pliant holds principal membership status with both Visa and Mastercard. The company operates under a European e-money licence, issuing commercial cards across 13 currencies in 32 countries, with additional coverage in the UK and US through regulated partners. The organization has grown to employ over 300 staff across eight offices globally.
Pliant's customer base spans travel firms, insurance companies and AI-focused startups. Beyond direct clients, banks, fintech companies and software platforms leverage Pliant's infrastructure to offer their own commercial card services.
When agents move money, someone still has to be licensed, auditable and liable, and that is the layer Pliant owns.
Vinoth Jayakumar, general partner at Seaya Nova
The broader payments industry is exploring agent-driven transactions. Visa, BILL and Billtrust launched a pilot in October allowing AI agents to settle supplier bills. Synchrony is working to integrate store cards into ChatGPT. In the corporate card segment, US competitor Ramp achieved a $60bn valuation in October.
Source: The Next Web
