Foundation announced a $6.4 million funding round led by Fulgur Ventures with participation from Arche Capital as the company expands beyond Bitcoin self-custody into identity, AI agent authorization, and programmable security infrastructure. The company also announced the general availability of Passport Prime, its flagship security device, along with expanded access to the KeyOS developer platform.
The new financing brings Foundation’s total funding to $16.5 million. The company said the capital will accelerate its push into what it calls “Human Authority Hardware,” a category focused on dedicated security devices designed to ensure high-stakes digital actions require explicit human approval on hardware isolated from compromised software environments.
Foundation said Passport Prime is the first product in this category. The device includes a Bitcoin hardware wallet, FIDO security keys, two-factor authentication storage, a secrets vault, and 50GB of encrypted file storage. The company described the device as a programmable security platform that developers can extend using the KeyOS SDK for applications including identity tools, enterprise signing workflows, Bitcoin spending policies, and AI agent approval systems.
The company said the launch comes as AI agents increasingly gain the ability to act autonomously across financial accounts, cloud systems, and enterprise infrastructure. Foundation argues that important actions involving money movement, credential usage, code deployment, or sensitive data access should require approval on dedicated hardware separate from the same machine running the AI agent.
Foundation also opened the KeyOS developer platform to outside developers. The platform includes SDK documentation, CLI tooling, a simulator for testing applications without physical hardware, and a USB-connected MCP server designed to help AI coding agents build and test applications on Passport Prime hardware. The company said developers will be able to request developer units for testing on physical devices, and Foundation plans to launch a KeyOS app store by the end of the second quarter.
Passport Prime runs on KeyOS, an open-source Rust microkernel operating system developed by Foundation over three years. The platform includes QuantumLink over Bluetooth, a post-quantum-secure encrypted communications protocol using ML-KEM and ChaCha20-Poly1305 over an isolated Bluetooth chip.
Foundation also announced that Cake Wallet is the first outside team building on KeyOS, providing cold storage capabilities for its user base through a dedicated KeyOS application. The company expects additional integrations across Bitcoin, identity, and AI agent workflows throughout 2026.
The company said Passport Prime is manufactured in the United States at an ITAR-compliant facility and positioned the product as a trust layer for the “agentic era,” where AI systems increasingly act on behalf of humans.
KEY QUOTES:
“At Fulgur, we aim to support Bitcoin companies that can scale and solve real problems for large markets. Foundation is taking the discipline of self-custody, open source software, dedicated hardware, and explicit user approval, and extending it beyond Bitcoin into identity, multi-factor authentication, and AI agent authorization. We are proud to support Foundation since their early stage.”
Oleg Mikhalsky, Partner, Fulgur Ventures
“I led Foundation’s seed round at Polychain in 2022 because Zach and Ken saw further than anyone else in the space. The long game was never just signing devices. It was secure hardware paired with a secure operating system that lets users manage their entire digital lives. KeyOS delivers on that vision. The SDK, simulator, and security architecture turn dedicated hardware into the most advanced application platform for personal and enterprise security on the market, and let developers build the next generation of apps for money, identity, and AI authorization.”
Will Wolf, Partner, Arche Capital
“Every era has its key management problem. For Bitcoin it was self-custody. For the agentic era it is who actually authorizes the decisions an AI agent takes on someone’s behalf. That question cannot be answered by the same computer running the agent. It has to be answered on dedicated hardware, with a display you can trust and an operating system you can inspect. Nothing happens without your approval.”
Zach Herbert, Cofounder And CEO, Foundation
“Passport Prime secures the keys. You set the policies. KeyOS enforces them. The SDK lets developers build the apps that put those policies in your hands. The device stops being a box your keys sit in and becomes the hardware root of trust for everything you do online.”
Ken Carpenter, Cofounder And CTO, Foundation
