Baselayer, an AI-powered startup that helps financial institutions verify businesses and assess fraud risk, has raised $35M to expand its identity technology to AI agents. M13 led the San Francisco-based company’s Series A, with participation from Picus Capital, Torch Capital, Afore Capital and Matt Thompson of Socure. The financing brings Baselayer’s total funding to about $40M since its 2023 inception, according to co-founder and CEO Jonathan Awad.

More than 2,000 financial institutions — representing over 20% of such institutions in the U.S. — use its technology to onboard, underwrite and open accounts for merchants, according to Awad. Baselayer also works with Fortune 500 companies and has about 50 employees across offices in San Francisco and New York. Since its founding, the startup claims it has helped customers prevent more than $1B in fraud losses.

Baselayer is now using its new capital to address a newer — and growing — identity problem: determining whether an AI agent is authorized to act on behalf of a particular person or business. Alongside its raise, the company is launching its Agentic Identity Suite, extending its identity network from businesses to the AI agents transacting on their behalf.

The company is developing “Know Your Agent,” or KYA, to determine who deployed an agent, whom it represents and whether it has permission to act. Baselayer plans to give authorized agents credentials they can present when making purchases or interacting with another business.