Baselayer, which uses AI to help financial institutions verify businesses and assess fraud risk, raised a $35M Series A led by M13, for ~$40M in total funding

The infrastructure for verifying software agents acting in financial transactions is now being built, which will allow businesses to use AI agents more freely.

Baselayer, an AI-powered company focused on business verification and fraud risk assessment for financial institutions, has secured $35 million in a Series A funding round led by M13. This funding brings the company's total raised to approximately $40 million since its inception in 2023. Baselayer's platform currently serves over 2,000 financial institutions in the U.S., helping them onboard and underwrite customers, and has reportedly helped prevent over $1 billion in fraud losses. The new capital will be used to expand its identity verification technology to address the emerging challenge of authenticating AI agents. The company is launching its Agentic Identity Suite, including a "Know Your Agent" (KYA) system, to verify the credentials and authorization of AI agents acting on behalf of businesses.

Baselayer's expansion into verifying AI agents signals a critical new frontier in digital trust, as the financial sector grapples with the implications of autonomous software acting as economic actors. The company's "Know Your Agent" initiative aims to establish a standard for AI agent authentication, crucial for preventing fraud and enabling legitimate AI-driven commerce. This move positions Baselayer as a key player in defining the foundational identity layer for the future of AI in finance, potentially impacting how all automated business interactions are secured.

The development of agentic identity solutions addresses the growing concern that AI-powered fraud could outpace existing security measures. By extending their business identity network to AI agents, Baselayer is creating a credentialing system that financial institutions can use to distinguish between legitimate automated actions and malicious bot activity. This effort is vital for building confidence in AI agents and ensuring they can be integrated safely into financial workflows without being universally blocked as suspected bots.