Basis Theory has raised $33 million in Series B funding to accelerate its work in agentic commerce.

The new funding brings Basis Theory’s total capital raised to about $50 million and positions it among a growing class of fintech companies building flexible, processor-agnostic payment systems for enterprise clients. Agentic commerce is an emerging model where artificial intelligence (AI) agents conduct transactions on behalf of users and businesses.

Basis Theory is a payments infrastructure startup focused on helping merchants control and secure sensitive transaction data. Costanoa Ventures led the round, with participation from Stage 2 Capital and Moneta VC, as well as continued support from Bessemer Venture Partners, Kindred Ventures, Box Group, and Offline Ventures.

Fintech veterans Brian Billingsley, Colin Luce, and Ben Milne founded Basis Theory in 2020. Their experience spans Yodlee, Dwolla and Klarna. Its stated mission is to help merchants and platforms take back control of their payments infrastructure. Its platform centers on a cloud-native, PCI Level 1-compliant vault that allows customers to tokenize and manage payment data independently of any single payment processor or orchestration layer.

“The payments ecosystem is changing rapidly, and merchants no longer want to be locked into rigid platforms,” said Luce, who is also 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.”

How Basis Theory will use its Series B funding

As more merchants rely on multiple payment service providers to reach customers globally, the challenge has shifted from processing payments to managing and governing payment data across a fragmented landscape. Basis Theory said its approach allows enterprises to store, share and use sensitive data securely. And it intends to do so without the compliance burden or vendor lock-in that typically comes with legacy systems.

The company’s technology also underpins the emerging field of agentic commerce. Basis Theory leads the Agentic Commerce Consortium. The consortium is a network of more than 20 companies developing standards and infrastructure. That foundation would allow AI agents to safely initiate and manage transactions on behalf of consumers and businesses. By decoupling sensitive payment credentials from the point of transaction, the company aims to make it possible for merchants to participate in AI-driven commerce at scale.

“Basis Theory is at the forefront of a dramatic shift as AI reshapes ecommerce as we know it,” said Amy Cheetham, 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.”

The company employs more than 40 people. It plans to expand its engineering, product and go-to-market teams in the coming year. Beyond scaling its vault and API platform, Basis Theory will continue to build out its agentic commerce infrastructure, positioning itself as a foundational player in the convergence of fintech and artificial intelligence.

“Payments have always been a backbone of commerce,” Luce said. “What’s changing now is who — or what — is making those payments. Our job is to make sure that transition happens securely and intelligently.”

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