Sean Neville Raises $18 Million to Build the First AI Native Bank

Sean Neville has long had a knack for identifying the next frontier in financial technology. More than a decade ago, at the height of the crypto boom, he co-founded Circle, a startup that would go on to become the world’s second-largest issuer of stablecoins, helping create the now-ubiquitous USDC. Today, Circle is on the verge of going public.

Now Neville is turning his focus to artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, Neville announced an $18 million seed round for his new venture, Catena Labs, which aims to build what he calls the world’s first “AI-native bank.” The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm, with participation from Breyer Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, CoinFund, and Pillar VC, alongside individual investors including NFL legend Tom Brady, Balaji Srinivasan, and Jim Breyer.

“There won’t be any humans or businesses that are executing financial transactions directly,” Neville predicted. “There will only be agents, only AIs in the future.”

Banking for the Agent Economy

Neville stepped down from his executive role at Circle in early 2020 but remained on the company’s board. After a year-long sabbatical spent researching developments in AI and identity infrastructure, Neville re-emerged convinced that the internet and by extension, the financial system was entering a new shift where AI agents become the primary participants in digital commerce.

“AI agents will soon conduct most economic transactions,” Neville said. “But today’s financial systems are unprepared and resistant to interactions with automated intelligence. That’s why we’re building an AI-native financial institution that will give AI agents, and the businesses and consumers they serve, the ability to transact safely and efficiently.”

Neville co-founded Catena Labs with Matt Venables, a former senior engineering leader at Circle who now serves as the company’s CTO. The team is small with just nine employees but their ambitions are sweeping. The goal is nothing less than a reinvention of financial infrastructure, optimized for AI-first use cases.

As a first step, Catena has released an open-source framework dubbed the Agent Commerce Kit (ACK), which outlines protocols for how AI agents should handle identity verification, payments, and trust-building in digital interactions.

“Today’s financial infrastructure creates significant friction for AI agents, with slow, fragile, and expensive legacy payment rails constraining the potential for AI commerce,” said Venables. “While we are integrating existing payment networks as we bridge into the future, we’re focused on transforming how money moves in the AI economy by using regulated stablecoins that offer near-instant settlement, minimal transaction costs, and easy integration with AI workflows.”

Stablecoins as the Financial Engine

While Catena Labs is not launching a new token or stablecoin at least for now, cryptocurrency still plays a critical role in the company’s long-term strategy. The name Catena, derived from Latin for “chain,” hints at the blockchain foundation underpinning parts of the platform. Neville emphasized that while the company’s products “will integrate, but not be defined by, stablecoins,” they remain a crucial part of the architecture.

“Stablecoins solve certain problems,” Neville said. “It doesn’t solve all the problems.”

In the short term, regulated stablecoins like USDC, a product Neville himself helped launch offer a powerful tool for enabling low-cost, nearly instant global payments between AI agents. Catena’s early product releases are designed to take advantage of that speed and programmability, while also developing entirely new rails suited for agent-based commerce.

In a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter), the company argued that traditional financial infrastructure is becoming a bottleneck for AI agents: “The current traditional financial system won’t be able to keep up with AI agents as they are gradually becoming powerful economic players.”

AI-Native Financial Institution

Catena’s long-term ambition is to become a fully regulated AI-native financial institution. While Neville declined to share the company’s valuation or detailed product roadmap, the direction is clear: Catena wants to offer a full suite of licensed financial services tailored for AI—covering everything from identity and compliance to payments and authentication.

“Integrating AI into commerce demands a rebuild of financial infrastructure. Legacy systems cannot always keep up and that’s why Catena is so compelling,” said Jim Breyer, founder and CEO of Breyer Capital. “Sean is uniquely qualified to lead the creation of the first AI-native bank.”

Backers like Chris Dixon, general partner at a16z crypto, echoed that sentiment: “The rise of AI agents is reshaping what’s possible in online commerce. It’s clear that we need a financial layer built specifically for how these systems operate, one that can handle authentication, payments, and trust at scale.”

Bridging the Old and the New

Despite its futuristic premise, Catena Labs is not betting on a full overnight replacement of legacy systems. The company says it plans to bridge into the future, integrating traditional rails with AI-friendly protocols where possible, while also pushing forward with open standards for agent identity and transaction logic.

The newly launched Agent Commerce Kit is intended as a foundational piece of that vision, combining components, protocols, and emerging patterns that other developers and fintechs can build on.

For Neville, it’s another chapter in a career built on anticipating how technology will reshape finance. From Circle’s early bet on stablecoins to Catena’s conviction around autonomous AI agents, Neville has consistently found himself building infrastructure for a world that doesn’t fully exist yet.

“The web is going AI-native,” Neville said. “And it needs a bank that’s built for it.”