Pliant raises $80m Series C to open payments to AI agents

For the head of commercial cards at a regional bank

Pliant, a B2B payments firm headquartered in Berlin, raised $80m in a Series C round, the company said in a press release on Nov. 4, to open more of its payment infrastructure to AI agents.2 1

Pliant said businesses are increasingly connecting AI agents directly to their financial systems, according to FinTech Global.1 External agents can connect to the platform through Model Context Protocol (MCP), including Claude, ChatGPT and automations that companies build themselves, according to FinTech Global.1

Seaya Nova and Speedinvest led the round, with Illuminate Financial, Motive Partners and Molten Ventures also investing, according to FinTech Global.1 2

Pliant will use the money to expand in the United States and Canada, prepare entry into additional international markets and speed up its AI roadmap, according to FinTech Global and PYMNTS. The sources did not say which markets or when.1 2

FinTech Global reported that the raise came after Pliant doubled its business in each of the last three years and followed soon after the company passed $100m in annual recurring revenue; it did not say how Pliant measures growth or revenue.1

The platform combines commercial card issuing, payment accounts and foreign exchange, and banks, FinTech firms and software platforms use it to build their own commercial payment products, according to the press release as reported by PYMNTS.1 2

Why it matters

Pliant's CEO Malte Rau framed the product around AI payment automation "with the right guardrails", so the controls on what an agent may do are part of what is sold. Banks building card or payment programs on a vendor, or competing with one, should check how limits, audit and liability are set when an outside agent requests a card or payment.

From the brief

Our take. Pliant lets Claude, ChatGPT or a client's own agents reach its card issuing and payments through MCP, and banks already build products on Pliant. Offer agent access with spend limits yourself, or rent it from a rival.

Action. Commercial cards product: Document whether clients' AI agents can request cards or payments, with per-agent spend limits, approvals and audit logs.

From our records

Claude (Anthropic)vendor · banks using it (24) Goldman, JPMorgan, BankUnited · alternatives Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, Gemini Enterprise
ChatGPT Enterprise (OpenAI)vendor · banks using it (17) Morgan Stanley, BNY, Customers Bank · alternatives Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Gemini Enterprise

Sources

ReportPliant raises $80m as AI agents reshape B2B payments FinTech Global
Also reported byPliant Raises $80 Million to Open B2B Payments to AI Agents PYMNTS