PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) is betting that a "killer combination" of stablecoins and blockchain-based infrastructure can unlock a new machine-driven economy.
That was the message from PayPal Crypto and Digital Assets Head of Global Market Development Steve Everett, who said in a PayPal Ventures statement that startup Kite's system "will be the killer combination that delivers the promises of programmable payments in the exciting frontier of agentic commerce."
The statement came as PayPal Ventures announced on Sept. 2 that Kite, formerly known as Zettablock, raised $18 million in a Series A round, bringing its total funding to $33 million. The raise was led by PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst, with participation from Samsung Next, Alumni Ventures, Animoca Brands, and others.
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Kite's Team Brings Uber, Databricks, Salesforce Experience To The Agentic Web
Behind the funding is a team with academic roots at UC Berkeley, MIT, Harvard, Oxford, and the University of Tokyo, and engineering backgrounds from Uber (NYSE:UBER), Databricks, and Salesforce (NYSE:CRM).
The San Francisco-based company is developing what it calls "foundational trust infrastructure for the agentic web," giving AI agents the ability to authenticate, transact, and operate independently, according to the statement.
The Agent Identity Revolution
Kite co-founder and CEO Chi Zhang believes autonomous agents represent the future of digital economies. His team recently launched Kite Agent Identity Resolution, dubbed “Kite AIR,” a pioneering solution enabling AI agents to function in real-world commercial environments.
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“From the beginning, we believed autonomous agents would be the dominant user interface for the future digital economies. To function, they need structured and verifiable data. That was our first step,” Zhang said in the statement. “Next come identity, trust, and programmable payments. Today’s human-centric systems are too rigid and brittle for swarms of agents conducting micro-transactions at machine speed. Kite AIR solves that.”
The system includes two core components: Agent Passport, which provides verifiable identity with operational guardrails, and Agent App Store, where agents can discover and pay for services, including application programming interfaces, data, and commerce tools. According to the statement, the platform is already live with integrations for popular commerce platforms like Shopify (NASDAQ:SHOP) and PayPal.
Why PayPal Ventures Sees Billion-Dollar Potential
The backing from PayPal Ventures shows major validation for Kite’s approach to solving payment challenges in the emerging agent economy.
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PayPal Ventures Partner Alan Du highlighted the technical hurdles that Kite addresses. “Payment has proven to be a challenging technical gap. Solutions like virtual cards provide only short-term workarounds. Latency, fees, and chargebacks further complicate things,” Du said in the statement. “Kite bridges this critical gap by providing stablecoin-based, millisecond-level settlement with low transaction fees and no chargeback fraud risks. This enables new economic models such as agent-to-agent metered billing, micro-subscription, and high-frequency trading.”
General Catalyst Managing Director Marc Bhargava emphasized the foundational nature of Kite’s work. “Kite is doing the foundational work we believe will define how agents operate tomorrow,” Bhargava said. “They are building the rails for the machine-to-machine economy.”
PayPal and Shopify merchants can already opt into the Kite Agent App Store, making their services discoverable to AI shopping agents. Purchases settle on-chain with full traceability using stablecoins and programmable permissions, while Kite actively builds additional integrations across commerce, finance, and data platforms.
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