AI Agent · Funding Round · Circle · New York · Crypto Briefing
Catena Labs locks in $30 million Series A, files for bank charter to build financial rails for AI agents
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 3 sources. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
✓ KHAO Verified
Circle co-founder Sean Neville is betting that AI agents will need their own banking infrastructure, and regulators will want a say in how it works.
Key facts
- The $30 million Series A builds on an $18 million seed round that Catena raised earlier in 2025
- Catena Labs, the startup founded by Circle co-founder Sean Neville, has closed a $30 million Series A funding round aimed at building regulated financial infrastructure specifically designed for AI
- If approved, Catena would become one of a small number of crypto-adjacent companies to hold a bank charter, joining the likes of Anchorage Digital, which received a federal bank charter in 2021
- Circle co-founder Sean Neville is betting that AI agents will need their own banking infrastructure, and regulators will want a say in how it works
Summary
Catena Labs, the startup founded by Circle co-founder Sean Neville, has closed a $30 million Series A funding round aimed at building regulated financial infrastructure specifically designed for AI agents. The company is developing what it calls “governed infrastructure” for AI agent financial transactions: tools that let AI agents execute payments and other financial operations within a framework of rules, permissions, and audit trails. Catena isn’t building software, though. The $30 million Series A builds on an $18 million seed round that Catena raised earlier in 2025.