Pliant, a Berlin-based financial technology company specializing in modular business-to-business payment solutions, has raised $80 million in Series C funding to accelerate its international expansion and develop payment infrastructure for artificial intelligence agents. The oversubscribed financing was led by Seaya Nova and Speedinvest, with participation from Illuminate Financial, Motive Partners, and Molten Ventures.
The new investment follows three consecutive years in which Pliant doubled its business, with the company recently surpassing $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). Pliant employs more than 300 people across eight offices and processes billions of dollars in annual payment volume for businesses and financial services partners throughout Europe and North America.
Founded in 2020, Pliant provides an API-first payment platform that combines commercial card issuing, payment accounts, foreign exchange, and spend management. Its infrastructure supports businesses across travel, e-commerce, insurance, and AI-native technology, while also enabling banks, fintech companies, and software providers to develop their own commercial payment offerings.
The company is increasingly focused on connecting AI agents directly to regulated financial infrastructure, allowing businesses to automate payment-related activities while maintaining appropriate permissions, oversight, and auditability.
Pliant’s platform supports both internally developed AI agents and third-party applications. Through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT, along with enterprise-developed agents, can connect to Pliant’s infrastructure and incorporate payment functions into broader business workflows.
These capabilities are designed to support organizations seeking to automate recurring financial tasks, streamline payment operations, and integrate AI into existing financial processes.
The company is developing an infrastructure layer that enables AI agents to interact with regulated payment services while preserving the controls required for financial transactions.
Pliant’s modular architecture allows customers to access specific payment capabilities rather than adopting an entirely new financial system. This approach supports companies with complex payment requirements, including those operating across multiple jurisdictions, currencies, and business models.
As a principal member of Visa and Mastercard, Pliant issues commercial cards in 13 currencies across 32 countries. The company operates under its European electronic money license and through regulated partners in the United Kingdom and United States.
The Series C proceeds will support continued expansion in the United States and Canada, preparations for entry into additional international markets, and further development of Pliant’s agentic payment capabilities.
The company also plans to deepen its AI roadmap, expanding how autonomous applications can initiate and coordinate financial workflows through its platform.
Seaya Nova, one of the round’s lead investors, is backed by the European Investment Fund through the European Tech Champions Initiative, alongside other institutional investors.
With more than $100 million in ARR and a growing international customer base, Pliant is positioning its regulated financial infrastructure to support both traditional business payments and emerging applications involving autonomous AI agents.
KEY QUOTES
“We built Pliant as an API-first, modular B2B payments platform from day one, and we have adopted AI deeply, in our product and in how we run the company. 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. This investment will help us take that foundation further, opening more of our infrastructure directly to AI agents and expanding into new markets as we build the payment platform for the next generation of businesses.”
Malte Rau, CEO And Co-Founder Of Pliant
“Every wave of software has made the application layer cheaper and the infrastructure underneath more valuable, and AI is no exception. When agents move money, someone still has to be licensed, auditable and liable, and that is the layer Pliant owns. Malte, Fabian and the team have built principal-member card issuing, payment accounts and FX into a single modular platform that businesses, banks and now AI agents can build on. We back infrastructure companies with network effects in regulated markets, and Pliant is a textbook example. We are proud to lead this round and support the team’s expansion across North America and into new markets.”
Vinoth Jayakumar, General Partner At Seaya Nova
