London-based Paid, a startup founded by Outreach founder Manny Medina, has raised $21.6M in an oversubscribed seed round to pioneer results-based billing infrastructure for AI agents.
The round was led by Lightspeed, with participation from FUSE, EQT Ventures, and strategic angels.
With this raise, Paid has secured a total of $33.3M in funding since emerging from stealth earlier this year, valuing the company at over $100M.
Building the billing layer for AI agents
Unlike most startups in the AI agent ecosystem, Paid doesn’t build agents. Instead, it solves one of their biggest challenges: how to charge customers based on the value delivered rather than usage.
Traditional SaaS models—per-user or unlimited-use pricing—don’t work for AI agents, which incur variable costs from large model providers and cloud usage. Paid introduces a new billing model that ties revenue directly to results.
“If you’re a quiet agent, you don’t get paid,” Medina explains. “Agent providers need infrastructure that shows the value agents deliver—measured by time saved, errors avoided, or revenue generated. Paid makes that possible.”
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Early traction and customers
The startup already counts Artisan, a viral sales automation startup, among its early customers. It recently signed a deal with ERP vendor IFS, expanding beyond sales-focused agents into enterprise software.
The platform enables agent makers to bill clients for measurable outcomes, avoiding wasted spend on “AI slop”—a reference to MIT research showing that only 5% of enterprise AI pilots deliver value.
Lightspeed partner Alexander Schmitt noted:
“The core problem with AI today is that no one can really attach value to what agents are doing. Paid is the first company we’ve seen solving this issue, and we believe it’s key to driving mass adoption.”
The bigger picture
The rise of AI agents has created a billing paradox. While companies are eager to automate workflows, they don’t want to pay for output that doesn’t generate business value. Their infrastructure helps close that gap, making results-based billing a viable path for scaling agent adoption.
With fresh capital, Paid will expand product development, onboard more SaaS and enterprise clients, and build the foundation for what Medina calls the “billing standard of the AI agent economy.”
About Paid
Founded in 2024 by Manny Medina in London, the company is the billing infrastructure for AI agents. The platform enables agent providers to charge customers based on value delivered rather than usage, unlocking a new monetization model for the AI era. The firm has raised over $33M from Lightspeed, EQT Ventures, and other investors.
