The Agentic Paywall: Can Natural Outpace Stripe's Ecosystem?
AI-generated image · US National Wire
With $30 million in new capital, Natural is betting that redesigning financial rails for autonomous AI agents can create a new market order.
The fintech world is currently obsessed with 'agentic' workflows—AI that doesn't just suggest a vendor, but actually organizes the delivery. However, as TechCrunch reports, these agents hit a hard wall when it comes to the actual movement of money. Current financial rails, including ACH and credit cards, were built for human authorization, meaning an autonomous agent still needs a human in the loop to click 'pay.'
Enter Natural, a startup founded in 2025 by Kahlil Lalji, Eric Wang, and Walt Leung. Natural is positioning itself as an orchestration layer that allows AI agents to store and move funds autonomously. The goal is to move transactions from 'human speed' to 'computer speed,' which Lalji tells TechCrunch could increase the total volume of global payments by several orders of magnitude.
Natural views Stripe as its main competitor, and Lalji is leaning into the startup's agility, claiming its development speed gives it a "good shot" at competing with the incumbent, which is also racing to redesign payment rails for AI agents.
Natural's approach is broad; they aren't just focusing on the checkout process, but are attempting to reinvent the underlying infrastructure, including the handling of disputed transactions. To support this, they are building for both traditional bank payments and stablecoins—a move that puts them in competition with other startups like the DCVC-backed Skyfire Systems, which focuses on USD-backed stablecoins.
The company's ambitions have already attracted talent from the very incumbents they seek to disrupt, including former employees from Square, Ramp, and Stripe. This momentum is backed by significant capital. Forerunner, led by founder and managing partner Kirsten Green, recently led a $30 million Series A round, bringing Natural's total funding to $40 million.
Lalji, who previously founded the YC-backed Ivella (sold to Earnin in 2023), admitted to TechCrunch that he was hesitant to return to the finance sector after the end of the Zero Interest Rate Policy era. However, he views agentic payments as the most structurally important problem in the current space, betting that the infrastructure they build will become the financial backbone for the AI economy.