Basis Theory, a leading independent payments infrastructure company, announced it has raised $33 million in Series B funding, led by Costanoa Ventures with participation from Stage 2 Capital, Moneta VC, and continued support from Bessemer Venture Partners, Kindred Ventures, Box Group, and Offline Ventures.
The funding will accelerate Basis Theory’s work in agentic commerce—a rapidly emerging field where AI agents make autonomous purchasing decisions—and expand the company’s enterprise-grade payment vault used by merchants around the globe.
Today’s merchants face mounting pressure to modernize their payment infrastructure. Legacy platforms often restrict innovation, and managing data across multiple payment service providers can be costly and complex. Basis Theory addresses this challenge by enabling merchants to tokenize, store, and control sensitive payment data independently from processors and orchestration layers.
At the center of the company’s offering is a cloud-native, PCI-compliant vault that gives developers and product teams secure, programmable access to payment data—turning payments from a backend cost center into a strategic growth tool.
Basis Theory is positioning itself as a foundational player in agentic commerce—a new era where AI agents perform transactions, optimize purchasing, and personalize experiences on behalf of consumers and businesses.
To support this vision, Basis Theory leads the Agentic Commerce Consortium, a collaboration of over 20 companies building the infrastructure and standards for AI-led commerce. This initiative is designed to enable merchants to participate safely and effectively in agent-driven transactions without compromising control, compliance, or customer trust.
The Series B funding will be used to expand Basis Theory’s engineering, product, and go-to-market teams, while continuing to enhance its infrastructure to support more complex AI commerce scenarios.
With a growing customer base that includes brands like Pinterest, Melio, and MoneyGram, Basis Theory is becoming a go-to platform for companies seeking to unlock the full potential of their payments data.
Founded in 2020 by fintech veterans Brian Billingsley, Colin Luce, and Ben Milne, the company now employs over 40 people and maintains a developer-first approach that emphasizes flexibility, security, and zero vendor lock-in.
KEY QUOTES:
“The payments ecosystem is changing rapidly, and merchants no longer want to be locked into rigid platforms. We’re giving control back by making payments data as accessible and programmable as any other data type so it can fuel growth, intelligence, and automation across the entire business.”
Colin Luce, Co-Founder and CEO, Basis Theory
“Basis Theory is at the forefront of a dramatic shift as AI reshapes e-commerce as we know it. By giving merchants secure, real-time control over payment data, Basis Theory enables AI agents to authorize transactions, personalize experiences, and drive autonomous purchasing. They aren’t just keeping up with the future of commerce, they’re building it.”
Amy Cheetham, Partner at Costanoa Ventures
