Sapiom Raises $15M to Streamline Payments for AI Agents

The startup aims to build a financial layer that handles authentication and micro-payments required for AI agents to access external tools and services.

Feb. 5, 2026 at 7:23pm

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Sapiom, a startup founded by former Shopify engineering director Ilan Zerbib, has raised $15 million in seed funding led by Accel. The company is developing a financial infrastructure that allows AI agents to securely purchase and access software, APIs, data, and compute resources without manual intervention. Sapiom's goal is to eliminate the backend integration challenges faced by non-technical creators building AI-powered applications that require external services.

Why it matters

As more people without coding backgrounds leverage 'vibe coding' tools to build custom AI-powered applications, the need for a seamless way to connect these apps to external services like SMS, email, and payments becomes critical. Sapiom's solution aims to create a frictionless financial layer that enables AI agents to autonomously manage the authentication and micro-payments required to utilize these third-party tools and services.

The details

Sapiom is building a payment system that lets AI agents decide what services to purchase and when, without human intervention. Every time an AI agent connects to an external tool like Twilio for SMS, it requires authentication and a micro-payment. Sapiom's goal is to make this whole process seamless, so that non-technical creators building AI-powered apps don't have to manually set up integrations with these third-party services.

  • Sapiom was launched by Ilan Zerbib in the summer of 2026.

The players

Sapiom

A startup developing a financial layer that allows AI agents to securely purchase and access software, APIs, data, and compute resources.

Ilan Zerbib

The founder of Sapiom, who previously spent five years as Shopify's director of engineering for payments.

Accel

The venture capital firm that is leading Sapiom's $15 million seed round.

Amit Kumar

A partner at Accel who believes Sapiom's focus on the financial layer for enterprises is what's truly needed to make AI agents work.

Okta Ventures, Array Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Anthropic, and Coinbase Ventures

The other investors participating in Sapiom's seed round.

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What they’re saying

“In the future, apps are going to consume services which require payments. Right now, there's no easy way for agents to actually access all of that.”

— Amit Kumar, Partner at Accel (TechCrunch)

“If you really think about it, every API call is a payment. Every time you send a text message, it's a payment. Every time you spin up a server for AWS, it's a payment.”

— Amit Kumar, Partner at Accel (TechCrunch)

What’s next

Sapiom is currently focused on B2B solutions, but its technology could eventually empower personal AI agents to handle consumer transactions. The expectation is that individuals will one day trust agents to make independent financial decisions, such as ordering an Uber or shopping on Amazon.

The takeaway

Sapiom's solution aims to address a critical need in the growing 'vibe coding' and AI-powered application development space by providing a seamless financial layer that enables non-technical creators to easily integrate their apps with external tools and services without having to manage the backend infrastructure and payments themselves.