Basis Theory has announced the successful completion of a $33 million Series B funding round, designed to bolster its efforts in advancing agentic commerce. This latest infusion of capital brings the company's total funding to around $50 million, positioning it in a growing cadre of fintech companies focused on creating adaptable, processor-agnostic payment solutions for enterprise clients.
Founded in 2020 by seasoned fintech veterans Brian Billingsley, Colin Luce, and Ben Milne, Basis Theory is on a mission to empower merchants to regain control over sensitive transaction data. The company is pioneering a payments infrastructure that allows businesses to tokenize and manage their payment information independently from any specific payment processor or orchestration layer, leveraging a robust cloud-native, PCI Level 1-compliant vault.
"The payments ecosystem is changing rapidly, and merchants no longer want to be locked into rigid platforms," explained Luce, the company's CEO. "We’re giving control back by making payments data as accessible and programmable as any other data type so it can fuel growth, intelligence, and automation across the entire business."
The newly acquired funds will be instrumental as more merchants embrace multiple payment service providers to engage with a global customer base. As these transactions increasingly take place across a fragmented landscape, the challenge now lies not only in processing payments but also in managing and governing sensitive payment data securely.
Basis Theory's innovative strategy allows enterprises to store and utilize sensitive data without the compliance-heavy requirements or vendor lock-in issues associated with traditional payment solutions. Furthermore, their technology is at the forefront of the emerging field of agentic commerce — a model wherein artificial intelligence agents handle transactions on behalf of both users and businesses.
The company is leading the charge as a member of the Agentic Commerce Consortium, an assembly of over 20 companies dedicated to establishing standards and infrastructure for this transformative market. By decoupling sensitive payment credentials from transaction points, Basis Theory aims to facilitate widespread merchant participation in AI-driven commerce.
"Basis Theory is at the forefront of a dramatic shift as AI reshapes ecommerce as we know it," said Amy Cheetham, a partner at Costanoa Ventures. "By giving merchants secure, real-time control over payment data, Basis Theory enables AI agents to authorize transactions, personalize experiences, and drive autonomous purchasing. They aren’t just keeping up with the future of commerce — they’re building it."
With a team of over 40 professionals, Basis Theory anticipates expanding its engineering, product, and go-to-market teams over the next year. The company is not only focused on scaling its vault and API platform, but also on enhancing its foundational role in the integration of fintech and artificial intelligence.
"Payments have always been a backbone of commerce," Luce asserted. "What’s changing now is who — or what — is making those payments. Our job is to make sure that transition happens securely and intelligently."
By channeling significant funds into its operations, Basis Theory is well-positioned to lead in the evolving landscape of payments, particularly as the intersection of AI and commerce becomes more pronounced.