Baselayer
by Baselayer
Business identity, risk and fraud infrastructure that now verifies AI agents before they transact
Baselayer is a business identity verification (KYB), credit risk and fraud platform used by more than 2,000 US financial institutions, and since September 2026 it also sells a Know Your Agent suite. It is for banks, fintechs, payments companies and merchants that need to know which business or agent is on the other side of a transaction before money moves.
Baselayer started in 2023 as a Know Your Business (KYB) provider for financial institutions: it combines public, proprietary and partner data to verify a business, screen its officers and owners, search liens, lawsuits and bankruptcies, analyse its website and online presence, and assign a risk rating during onboarding and underwriting. The company says more than 2,000 US financial institutions use it (it has also cited 2,300 institutions and payments firms, roughly one in five US institutions), and that it has helped customers avoid over $1 billion in fraud losses; both figures are self-reported. Featured customers include Fundbox, LoanPro, Nuvei, Oatfi, Breakout Finance and FIS. On September 22, 2026 Baselayer announced a $35 million Series A led by M13 and launched its Agentic Identity Suite. Its centerpiece, Know Your Agent (KYA), is meant to establish which platform runs an AI agent, which verified business and authorised person it acts for, and what it is permitted to do. KYA uses selective disclosure (operator identity in the open, a pseudonymous returning-customer ID, full KYC/KYB at transaction time), credentials that avoid reusable secrets, and signed evidence records that persist after the agent session ends. The suite also includes Counterparty Verification, a Trusted Registry of verified businesses and agents, and a Baselayer MCP server. Crunchbase News reported that KYA was still being designed when it launched and that no industry standard for agent credentials exists yet, so adoption depends on merchants and institutions agreeing to recognise it. Baselayer is about 50 people, sells direct and through resellers, and participates in the FIDO Alliance Authentication Working Group and the x402 Identity Working Group.
Heads of fraud, risk or onboarding at banks, credit unions, fintech lenders and payments companies who need KYB today and expect agent-initiated transactions soon.
One credit-metered platform that verifies the business behind an application, and increasingly the agent behind a transaction, with fewer manual reviews.
At a Glance
- Category
- Governance & Security
- Pricing
- Subscription, Usage-based
- Target Market
- Heads of Fraud and Risk, Fintech CTOs, Banks and Credit Unions, Payments Companies, Merchants
- Deployment
- Cloud-only, API-based
- Founded
- 2023
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, USA
- Team Size
- 11-50
- Customers
- 2,000+ financial institutions (company claim)
Key Features
- ✓Business Verification and KYB Rating
Verifies a business against public, proprietary and partner data and scores KYB risk, which cuts manual review during onboarding.
- ✓Credit and public-record searches
Searches and files liens and pulls lawsuits and bankruptcies, so underwriters see legal and credit exposure in one place.
- ✓Know Your Agent (KYA)
Ties an AI agent to its operator, the verified business and authorised person it represents, and the actions it may take.
- ✓Selective disclosure and evidence records
Reveals only the identity attributes an action needs and keeps signed records of delegation that survive after the agent session ends.
- ✓Counterparty Verification and Trusted Registry
Checks business identity and risk at the moment of action and gives participants a shared registry of verified businesses and agents.
- ✓Portfolio Monitoring and Fraud Consortium
Monitors existing business customers for changes in risk and pools fraud signals across institutions, now extended to agent fraud.
- ✓Risk Co.Pilot and Baselayer MCP
AI agents for underwriting tasks plus an MCP server so model-driven workflows can query Baselayer's identity and risk data.
Capabilities
Use Cases
- •Business account onboarding
A bank runs KYB, officer screening and sanctions checks through the API, auto-approving clean applicants and routing exceptions to analysts.
- •SMB loan underwriting
A lender pulls liens, lawsuits and a risk rating at application time; LoanPro reports a 60% drop in manual reviews.
- •Merchant verification for payments
A payments provider verifies merchants during signup; Nuvei reports match rates near 90% against roughly 60% before.
- •Accepting agent-initiated purchases
A merchant checks an agent's KYA credential to confirm who deployed it and whom it represents before letting the transaction proceed.
Ideal For
Best For
- ✓Automating KYB checks during business account onboarding at banks and credit unions
- ✓SMB lenders that need liens, litigation and bankruptcy searches in the underwriting flow
- ✓Payments providers and marketplaces verifying merchants at scale
- ✓Merchants and platforms preparing to accept purchases initiated by third-party AI agents
Not Ideal For
- ✗Teams looking for runtime protection of their own agents: Baselayer's CEO has said it cannot stop a model from ignoring instructions and only verifies credentials when an agent deals with an outside party
- ✗Buyers who need a proven, widely recognised agent credential now: KYA launched before any industry standard exists and its acceptance network is still being built
- ✗Consumer-only identity verification programmes, since the core product is built around business entities
Deployment
Market & Ratings
2,000+ financial institutions (company claim)
Market Analysis
Pros
- ✓Transparent entry pricing with no contract on Start-up and Growth tiers
- ✓Large existing customer base in US banking gives KYA a distribution channel
- ✓SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 reports available through its Trust Center
- ✓Customer-reported results include 60% fewer manual reviews (LoanPro) and roughly 90% match rates (Nuvei)
Cons
- ✗KYA was described as still being designed at launch, and no standard for agent credentials has emerged, so its value depends on merchants and banks recognising it
- ✗Sales cycles are long: the CEO cited 12 to 18 months for financial institutions and up to 24 months for large merchants, which slows network effects
- ✗Headline traction figures (2,000+ institutions, $1B fraud prevented, eight-figure revenue) are self-reported, and customer counts differ between sources
- ✗No independent user reviews found on G2 or practitioner discussion on Hacker News to confirm day-to-day quality
Pricing
Start-up
From $150/mo
- ✓500, 1,000 or 2,000 monthly credits
- ✓KYB, liens, litigation, sanctions screening, online presence
- ✓API and console access
- ✓3 API keys
- ✓No contract, cancel anytime
Growth
From $750/mo
- ✓3,000, 6,000 or 10,000 monthly credits
- ✓Everything in Start-up
- ✓5 API keys
- ✓Priority support
Enterprise
Contact for pricing
- ✓Unlimited API keys
- ✓UCC lien filing
- ✓Portfolio monitoring
- ✓Dedicated account manager and Slack/Teams support SLA
- ✓Annual contract, invoicing and ACH
List prices are published: Start-up from $150/month and Growth from $750/month, metered in credits from one wallet across all products, with overage credits billed at a slightly higher rate rather than blocking requests. A sandbox lets you test API calls without spending credits. Lien filing, portfolio monitoring and SLAs sit in Enterprise on an annual contract. Pricing for the Agentic Identity Suite is not published.
Security & Compliance
Connect
Sources
This page was written from 7 sources, 4 on domains other than baselayer.com.
- 1.baselayer.com — baselayer.comvendor
- 2.baselayer.com — pricingvendor
- 3.baselayer.com — know your agentvendor
- 4.trust.baselayer.com — trust.baselayer.com
- 5.news.crunchbase.com — verifying ai agents baselayer 35m raise
- 6.fintech.global — baselayer lands 35m to verify ai agents before fraud hits
- 7.pulse2.com — baselayer raises 35 million series a
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