Natural, a one-year-old startup building payment infrastructure for AI agents, has raised $30M in a Series A round led by Forerunner. The company is redesigning financial rails from the ground up so AI agents can autonomously move money without human intervention.
Today’s payment systems were built for human-initiated transactions. Credit cards and ACH rely on human authorization, which slows down AI agents designed to work autonomously. Natural positions itself as an agent orchestration layer that enables AI agents to make payments, collect funds, and transact with both humans and other agents.
Co-founder and CEO Kahlil Lalji previously built Ivella, a YC-backed banking product acquired by Earnin. He teamed up with Eric Wang and Walt Leung to launch Natural in 2025. The company has raised $40M to date, including this round.
Forerunner founder Kirsten Green said Natural isn’t just helping agents pay for goods – it’s reinventing payment infrastructure including how disputes are handled. Natural competes with Stripe, which is also racing to build AI-native payment rails, and DCVC-backed Skyfire Systems. Lalji believes agentic transactions could grow orders of magnitude beyond human-initiated payments.
