- Previously known as Zettablock, Kite introduces a novel architecture designed specifically for the agentic web, drawing on years of expertise in distributed infrastructure systems.
- Any PayPal or Shopify retailer may now opt in via the Kite Agent App Store and make themselves discoverable by AI shopping agents.
- Agent Passport, a verifiable identity with functional safeguards, and the Agent App Store, where agents may find and purchase services including APIs, data, and commerce tools, are the two main parts of Kite AIR.
Today, Kite, a firm building the agentic web’s fundamental trust infrastructure, revealed that it had secured $18 million in Series A investment, increasing its total cumulative funding to $33 million. General Catalyst and PayPal Ventures led the round. Samsung Next, SBI US Gateway Fund, Vertex Ventures, Hashed, HashKey Capital, Dispersion Capital, Alumni Ventures, Avalanche Foundation, GSR Markets, LayerZero, Animoca Brands, Essence VC, Alchemy, and 8VC are among the other investors in the firm.
Previously known as Zettablock, Kite introduces a novel architecture designed specifically for the agentic web, drawing on years of expertise in distributed infrastructure systems. Large-scale, real-time data infrastructures supporting decentralized networks including Chainlink, EigenLayer, Sui, and Polygon were previously built by the team. Kite is designed to cater to a new kind of user—agents—by building directly on that base.
A groundbreaking technology that allows autonomous agents to authenticate, transact, and function autonomously in real-world settings, Kite Agent Identity Resolution, or “Kite AIR,” was recently introduced by the business. The system uses a blockchain designed for autonomous agents to provide programmable identification, native stablecoin payment, and policy enforcement. Agent Passport, a verifiable identity with functional safeguards, and the Agent App Store, where agents may find and purchase services including APIs, data, and commerce tools, are the two main parts of Kite AIR. Thanks to open interfaces with well-known e-commerce platforms like PayPal and Shopify, it is operational as of right now.
Chi Zhang, Co-Founder and CEO of Kite stated:
“From the beginning, we believed autonomous agents would be the dominant UI for the future digital economies. To function, they need structured and verifiable data, That was our first step. Next come identity, trust, and programmable payments. Today’s human-centric systems are too rigid and brittle for swarms of agents conducting micro-transactions at machine speed. Kite AIR solves that”.
Any PayPal or Shopify retailer may now opt in via the Kite Agent App Store and make themselves discoverable by AI shopping agents by leveraging publicly accessible APIs. With the use of stablecoins and programmable permissions, purchases are settled on-chain with complete traceability. Additionally, Kite is continuously developing more interfaces across data, financial, and commerce platforms.
Marc Bhargava, Managing Director at General Catalyst stated:
“Kite is doing the foundational work we believe will define how agents operate tomorrow. They are building the rails for the machine-to-machine economy.”
Alan Du, Partner at PayPal Ventures stated:
“Kite is the first real infrastructure that is purpose-built for the agentic economy. Payment has proven to be a challenging technical gap. Solutions like virtual cards provide only short-term workarounds. Latency, fees, and chargebacks further complicate things. Kite bridges this critical gap by providing stablecoin-based, millisecond-level settlement with low transaction fees and no chargeback fraud risks. This enables new economic models such as agent-to-agent metered billing, micro-subscription, and high frequency trading.”
Leaders in the field who are developing the future of agentic commerce and programmable payments share that vision.
Steve Everett, Head of Global Market Development, PayPal Crypto and Digital Assets stated:
“Kite’s foundational trust infrastructure together with the benefits of a well-regulated stablecoin for agentic payments will create unprecedented opportunities. Enabling simultaneous, atomic settlement, governed by smart contracts that allow for real-time tracking and auditing across highly performant blockchain protocols will be the killer combination that delivers the promises of programmable payments in the exciting frontier of agentic commerce. This opens the door for a truly global, automated economy where people, enterprise and machine can interact with ease and trust.”
The founding team of Kite has unparalleled experience in applied AI, large-scale data infrastructure, and blockchain protocol engineering—the three pillars needed to drive the agent economy. Chi Zhang, the CEO, managed Databricks’ key data products and has a PhD in AI from UC Berkeley. CTO Scott Shi was a founding developer on Salesforce Einstein AI and developed real-time AI infrastructure at Uber. Over 30 patents and publications at prestigious conferences like ICML and NeurIPS are held by Kite’s team. Engineers and researchers from Uber, Databricks, Salesforce, and NEAR are part of the larger team; they have academic backgrounds from MIT, Harvard, Oxford, UC Berkeley, and the University of Tokyo.
Kite is building the agentic internet’s core infrastructure. Its technology gives native access to stablecoin payments, customizable permissions, and cryptographic identity to autonomous agents. Kite is building the trust transaction layer for the agentic economy by allowing agents to behave autonomously, coordinate, and transact.
Global investment and transformation firm General Catalyst collaborates with the most driven businesspeople worldwide to promote applied AI and resilience.
From seed to growth stage and beyond, we work with long-term-minded innovators who disrupt the established quo. We have helped 800+ startups expand, including Airbnb, Anduril, Applied Intuition, Commure, Glean, Guild, Gusto, Helsing, Hubspot, Kayak, Livongo, Mistral, Ramp, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, Sword, and Zepto. We have offices in San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Berlin, Bangalore, and London.
