Paid, a startup focused on redefining the billing practices for AI agents, has successfully closed an oversubscribed seed funding round of $21.6 million led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. This milestone is especially impressive considering it’s only a few months after the company emerged from stealth mode in March 2023. For practitioners, it’s a notable rejoinder and counterpoint to the rapid rise of AI-driven solutions.
Manny Medina launched Paid after first being recognized for co-founding the successful sales automation platform Outreach, a company now worth $4.4 billion. Paid’s mission is to empower agent makers to innovate new ways to monetize their creations. Paid doesn’t work like that, though, not at all. Rather than supplying agents up-front, it allows creators to make money through something called “results-based billing.” This new model helps agent makers capture the value they create. It empowers them to charge customers in direct correlation to the savings they create.
Manny Medina was pretty clear that proving value needs to be the priority in today’s agent ecosystem.
“If you’re a quiet agent, you don’t get paid.” – Manny Medina
This idea aligns with a growing movement in the AI sector for what is often called the Responsible AI. Businesses are only beginning to understand the importance of understanding what impact your AI agents are making. According to Medina, it is crucial for agent makers to articulate the value their agents deliver:
“You need to show the value the agent is delivering to your customers, because agents are running in the background for the most part.” – Manny Medina
Indeed, Lightspeed’s Alexander Schmitt shared the same sentiments and pointed out that most AI pilots in the past have found it difficult to justify their value. This was further corroborated by a recent study from MIT, which found that 95% of enterprise AI projects don’t deliver meaningful value. Consequently, just a handful of these projects ever make it into production. Schmitt stated,
“The core of that problem is that no one can really attach value to what agents are doing today.” – Alexander Schmitt
Paid is booming in an otherwise bleak environment. In the race for the next big growth strategy, SaaS companies are increasingly looking at AI agents, and Paid is rising in popularity among them. One of its initial partnerships is ART’s first cohort Artisan, a sales automation startup that caught viral fire.
Paid raised a $10 million pre-seed round earlier this year, on top of its new seed funding. This raises their overall funding to $33.3 million, well before their first Series A round. The startup has a valuation of over $100 million, highlighting the confidence investors have in its innovative approach to AI billing.
Paid is building something unique on the wider AI landscape. Its emphasis on results-based billing could change the entire landscape of how companies leverage generative AI agents to scale their businesses. Paid’s got the right kind of support and vision here. It is poised to become the biggest success story in an industry where so many have failed.
“It’s something that we haven’t seen someone else build.” – Alexander Schmitt
As Paid continues to innovate within the AI sector, its focus on results-based billing could potentially reshape how companies leverage AI agents for business growth. With substantial backing and a clear vision, Paid is poised to make significant strides in an industry where many have faltered.