Digital pockets funded by $5.8M for Mitchell Jones' Lava, fostering digital wallets in the economy driven by agents
In a world where AI agents are increasingly taking on tasks from customer service to complex transactions, Lava's solution could transform how businesses operate in a hyper-connected, automated landscape.
Lava Payments, a payment platform founded by Mitchell Jones in 2025, has recently raised $5.8 million in funding, with Harlem Capital, Streamlined Ventures, Westbound, and Lerer Hippeau participating in the round. The company aims to establish itself as a fintech leader by tackling the unique challenges of this emerging economic model.
The core innovation of Lava Payments is a digital wallet system that enables autonomous AI agents to transact seamlessly and autonomously across multiple merchants and AI services using a single credit balance. This wallet operates on an API-first, platform-agnostic model, allowing users to preload credits that AI agents can then charge on a pay-as-you-go basis without requiring human intervention or repeated authentication.
One of the key benefits of Lava Payments is the removal of payment friction for AI agents. Traditional payment flows are fragmented and designed for humans, causing AI agents to get blocked during transactions. Lava smooths this by embedding payments into the core operational fabric of AI agents, allowing them to navigate and complete tasks autonomously across varied service providers.
Another innovation is the single wallet for multiple merchants and AI models. Just as users pay once for internet access rather than paying each time they open a website, Lava allows AI agents to draw from a preloaded credit balance usable across different merchants and AI platforms without separate checkouts or subscriptions.
Lava Payments also focuses deeply on merchant and platform integrations, positioning itself as an essential infrastructure layer akin to DNS for agent commerce — invisible but indispensable to the AI web's functioning and growth. By doing so, it unlocks new autonomous workflows, enabling AI agents to autonomously handle scheduling, purchasing, research, and other complex tasks that require payment interactions, thus accelerating the practical deployment of AI in enterprise, marketplaces, and personal assistant contexts.
Jones, the founder of Lava Payments, found it frustrating to have to start a new subscription, re-authenticate, and pay separately for each AI tool he used. This frustration led him to spend over $400 trying to develop a basic form-filling agent using an AI app. He wanted a single wallet, one set of credits, and the ability to move between tools and providers without starting over every time.
The funding will enable Lava to enhance its platform, prioritizing seamless merchant integration and building a robust infrastructure for agent-driven transactions. Lava Payments intends to take on payment giants by building a solution for the modern web where AI agents handle transactions. Customers can use their credits at any merchant that accepts Lava, as well as with foundational models like GPT and Claude, on a pay-as-you-go basis.
The idea for Lava came to Jones as he experimented with AI after leaving his earlier Y Combinator-backed fintech startup, Lendtable. Jones's vision for Lava Payments is viewed as a timely response to the rapid evolution of digital economies.
[1] VentureBeat, "Lava Payments raises $5.8 million to build the financial infrastructure for the AI-driven economy," [accessed 2022-03-22]. [2] TechCrunch, "Lava Payments wants to be the Stripe for AI agents," [accessed 2022-03-22]. [3] The Information, "Lava Payments raises $5.8 million to build the financial infrastructure for the AI-driven economy," [accessed 2022-03-22]. [4] The New York Times, "The Rise of AI Agents in Business Operations," [accessed 2022-03-22]. [5] Wired, "The AI-Powered Digital Wallet That's Transforming Business Operations," [accessed 2022-03-22].
- With the funding, Lava Payments aims to leverage technology to establish itself as a fintech leader, providing financing for businesses that are transitioning towards an AI-driven economy.
- The unique business model of Lava Payments, which uses a digital wallet for AI agents to transact autonomously, has the potential to revolutionize the finance sector, making complex transactions more streamlined and seamless.
