Baselayer, an AI-powered startup that helps financial institutions verify businesses and assess fraud risk, has raised $35 million in a Series A led by M13. Picus Capital, Torch Capital, Afore Capital and Socure co-founder Matt Thompson also participated. The financing brings Baselayer’s total funding to about $40 million since its 2023 inception, while the company declined to disclose its valuation. Baselayer plans to use the capital to expand its identity technology to AI agents.
Baselayer combines business identity, credit and fraud data to help banks, fintech companies and other financial-services providers evaluate prospective customers. Its products are sold directly and through software companies that resell or rebrand the technology. The company initially focused on Know Your Business (KYB) identity verification, fraud detection and risk management. More than 2,000 financial institutions use its technology, according to co-founder and CEO Jonathan Awad.
AI agents may be created for a single task and disappear immediately, leaving little history for banks or risk providers to evaluate. Baselayer is developing Know Your Agent, or KYA, to determine who deployed an agent, whom it represents and whether it is authorized to perform a particular task. Alongside the funding announcement, the company launched its Agentic Identity Suite . Baselayer is working with developers, payment processors, merchants and fraud-detection providers to issue and recognize credentials.
An authorized agent would receive a credential to present when making a purchase or interacting with another business. A merchant, financial institution or online platform could use that information to decide whether to allow a transaction. Awad said AI can make identity fraud faster and easier to scale by automating parts of the process and operating continuously. Baselayer’s technology is intended to verify an agent’s credentials, not prevent a model from ignoring instructions or exploiting vulnerabilities.
M13 managing partner Karl Alomar said Baselayer’s existing data, identity network and relationships with financial institutions could give it an advantage in the emerging agent identity market. No dominant standard exists, so the company must persuade developers, merchants, financial institutions and payment companies to recognize its agent credential . Awad said financial-institution relationships typically take 12 to 18 months and large merchant partnerships can take up to 24 months. Baselayer also sees potential applications in cryptocurrency transactions and smart contracts.