This New Startup Has Secured $5.8M To Build The Future Of AI Payments
Lava Payments, a fintech startup founded by Mitchell Jones to transform AI-driven transactions, has secured $5.8 million in seed funding. The round was led by Lerer Hippeau and supported by Harlem Capital, Streamlined Ventures, and Westbound. Lava is a digital wallet that lets merchants use usage credits to facilitate transactions, according to TechCrunch.
Why Lava Exists
Jones launched the startup after leaving his previous Y Combinator-backed fintech startup, Lendtable, where he began experimenting with AI. While building a basic form-filling agent, he continued to experience the same issues.
“I was using the same underlying models and tools again and again, but through different wrappers or platforms.” And each time, he had to start a new subscription, re-authenticate, and pay separately, “even though I was already paying for access to the core model,’ he said.
This fragmentation inspired Jones to create Lava, a unified way for AI agents to pay for services without needing human approval every time.
What is Lava Payments?
Lava is a digital wallet and credit system built for the “agent-native economy,” where AI agents increasingly operate and transact on behalf of users. Users preload credits into a single wallet, which AI agents can use to pay for services across any supported platform, without the need for repeated subscriptions, re-authentication, or manual approvals.
By integrating Lava, merchants can accept these credits directly, enabling seamless, pay-as-you-go transactions between agents and services.
About Mitchell Jones
Jones was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, and went on to study at Yale, working at companies like Dropbox and Meta. He told TechCrunch that he met his lead investors for Lava because he went to high school with Will McKelvey, now an investor at Lerer Hippeau.
“At Lava, we’ve built the first interoperable credit layer. Businesses can now easily adopt any pricing model, issue credits, track usage, and get paid. One wallet, one set of credits—usable across every AI product,” Jones said in a LinkedIn post.
Image: JJ Jumoc-Casas
