Berlin fintech Pliant has raised an $80M Series C to open its B2B payments infrastructure to AI agents, the company said on Wednesday. Seaya Nova and Speedinvest led the oversubscribed round. Illuminate Financial, Motive Partners and Molten Ventures also took part.
The money will fund Pliant’s expansion in the US and Canada, its entry into further markets and its AI roadmap. The round follows three years in which Pliant doubled its business each year. It comes shortly after the company passed $100M in annual recurring revenue.
How AI agents plug in
Pliant combines commercial card issuing, payment accounts, foreign exchange and spend management in one platform. Its own AI agents already automate recurring finance work for customers.
Outside agents, from Claude and ChatGPT to a company’s own automations, connect through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). They can then run payment workflows inside other business processes, with permissions, controls and audit trails built in, Pliant says.
“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,” said Malte Rau, Pliant’s CEO and co-founder.
The licensed layer
Pliant started in 2020 and is a principal member of Visa and Mastercard. It issues commercial cards in 13 currencies across 32 countries under its European e-money licence, and through regulated partners in the UK and US. It employs more than 300 people across eight offices.
Its customers include travel, insurance and AI-native companies. Banks, fintechs and software platforms also use its infrastructure to run their own commercial card offerings.
“When agents move money, someone still has to be licensed, auditable and liable, and that is the layer Pliant owns,” said Vinoth Jayakumar, general partner at Seaya Nova, in the Business Wire release.
Card networks are testing agent payments too. In October, AI agents started paying supplier invoices in a pilot with Visa, BILL and Billtrust. Synchrony wants to put store cards inside ChatGPT. In corporate cards, US rival Ramp reached a $60bn valuation in October.