Sapiom raises $15M to help AI agents buy their own tech tools

People without coding backgrounds are discovering that they tin physique their own customized apps utilizing alleged vibe coding — solutions similar Lovable that crook plain-language descriptions into moving code.

While these prompt-to-code tools tin assistance make bully prototypes, launching them into full-scale accumulation (as this newsman precocious discovered) tin beryllium tricky without figuring retired however to link the exertion with outer tech services, specified arsenic those that tin nonstop substance messages via SMS, email, and process Stripe payments.

Ilan Zerbib, who spent 5 years arsenic Shopify’s manager of engineering for payments, is gathering a solution that could destruct these backend infrastructure headaches for non-technical creators.

Last summer, Zerbib launched Sapiom, a startup processing the fiscal furniture that allows AI agents to securely acquisition and entree software, APIs, data, and compute — fundamentally creating a outgo strategy that lets AI automatically bargain the services it needs.

Every clip an AI cause connects to an outer instrumentality similar Twilio for SMS, it requires authentication and a micro-payment. Sapiom’s extremity is to marque this full process seamless, letting the AI cause determine what to bargain and erstwhile without quality intervention.

“In the future, apps are going to devour services which necessitate payments. Right now, there’s nary casual mode for agents to really entree each of that,” said Amit Kumar, a spouse astatine Accel.

Kumar has met with dozens of startups successful the AI payments space, but helium believes Zerbib’s absorption connected the fiscal furniture for enterprises, alternatively than consumers, is what’s genuinely needed to marque AI agents work. That’s wherefore Accel is starring Sapiom’s $15 cardinal effect round, with information from Okta Ventures, Array Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Anthropic, and Coinbase Ventures.

“If you truly deliberation astir it, each API telephone is simply a payment. Every clip you nonstop a substance message, it’s a payment. Every clip you rotation up a server for AWS, it’s a payment,” Kumar told TechCrunch.

While it’s inactive aboriginal days for Sapiom, the startup hopes that its infrastructure solution volition beryllium adopted by vibe-coding companies and different companies creating AI agents that volition yet beryllium tasked with doing galore things connected their own.

For example, anyone who has vibe-coded an app with SMS capabilities won’t person to manually motion up for Twilio, adhd a recognition card, and transcript an API cardinal into their code. Instead, Sapiom handles each of that successful the background, and the idiosyncratic gathering the micro-app volition beryllium charged for Twilio’s services arsenic a pass-through interest by Lovable, Bolt, oregon different vibe-coding platform.

While Sapiom is presently focused connected B2B solutions, its exertion could yet empower idiosyncratic AI agents to grip user transactions. The anticipation is that individuals volition 1 time spot agents to marque autarkic fiscal decisions, specified arsenic ordering an Uber oregon buying connected Amazon. While that aboriginal is exciting, Zerbib believes that AI won’t magically marque radical bargain much things, which is wherefore he’s focusing connected creating fiscal layers for businesses instead.