Digital wallet platform, Lava, founded by Mitchell Jones, securely bags $5.8 million in funding to develop wallets tailored for the agent-driven economic sector.
In the ever-evolving digital landscape, a new player is set to revolutionise the payment industry - Lava Payments. Founded by Mitchell Jones in 2025, Lava Payments is an AI-powered digital wallet designed for merchants to use usage credits for transactions.
Mitchell Jones, who previously founded fintech startup Lendtable, expressed his frustration with the repeated payments for similar services as "fundamentally broken". This led him to envision a single wallet for all transactions, free from the friction of multiple subscriptions and transaction approvals.
Lava Payments' solution could transform how businesses operate in a hyper-connected, automated landscape, as AI agents increasingly handle tasks from customer service to complex transactions. The company's innovative approach eliminates the need for constant human intervention, enabling AI agents to operate efficiently and independently across platforms.
The recently raised $5.8 million in funding will be used to enhance Lava Payments' platform, prioritising seamless merchant integration and building a robust infrastructure for agent-driven transactions. The fresh capital will also be utilised to develop the idea of a single wallet for various AI tools and providers.
The funding round was participated by Lerer Hippeau, Harlem Capital, Streamlined Ventures, and Westbound. Industry experts view Lava's vision as a timely response to the rapid evolution of digital economies, positioning the company to establish itself as a fintech leader, rivalling traditional payment giants.
Lava Payments offers a simple API and SDK, allowing fast adoption by developers with minimal code changes. The platform also supports diverse billing schemes, from simple per-use charges to complex tiered pricing, facilitating different merchant needs around AI usage billing.
Moreover, Lava Payments offers automatic billing and payouts, handling the entire billing loop—prepaid credits, metering usage of AI services, and payout distributions—relieving developers from building complex billing systems themselves.
With its unified "usage credits" model, users can preload a single set of credits that work across multiple merchants, services, and AI foundational models like GPT and Claude on a pay-as-you-go basis. This approach allows customers to use those credits at any merchant that accepts Lava, creating a seamless and developer-friendly payment experience.
As Lava Payments continues to grow and expand, it aims to simplify and make AI and agent payments more efficient, ultimately contributing to the development of the agent-native economy. The company plans to use its recent funding to advance product development, hire talent, and grow merchant integrations, aiming for widespread adoption.
[1] TechCrunch. (2025). Lava Payments Secures $5.8 Million to Simplify AI and Agent Payments. [online] Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/01/lava-payments-secures-5-8-million-to-simplify-ai-and-agent-payments/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2025].
[2] Lava Payments. (2025). Revolutionizing the Payment Industry for the Agent-Native Economy. [online] Available at: https://lavapayments.com/revolutionizing-the-payment-industry/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2025].
[3] Lava Payments. (2025). API & SDK Documentation. [online] Available at: https://docs.lavapayments.com/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2025].
[4] VentureBeat. (2025). Lava Payments Raises $5.8 Million to Streamline AI Payments. [online] Available at: https://venturebeat.com/2025/01/01/lava-payments-raises-5-8-million-to-streamline-ai-payments/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2025].
Lava Payments, with the recent $5.8 million in funding, intends to utilize the capital for improving its platform, prioritizing seamless merchant integration and building a robust infrastructure for agent-driven transactions, as well as developing the idea of a single wallet for various AI tools and providers. The company's innovative business model, using AI to revolutionize the payment industry, could significantly impact how businesses operate in a hyper-connected, automated landscape, influencing its growth as a fintech leader in the digital economy.
