Backed by Squarepoint Capital, J.P. Morgan Payments and Mastercard, the Seattle startup is building infrastructure that lets retailers sell products through AI agents without developing separate integrations.
firmly has raised $15 million in a Series A led by Squarepoint Capital, with participation from J.P. Morgan Payments, Mastercard and Samsung NEXT.
The financing, announced November 5, brings the Seattle-based company's total funding to approximately $20 million.
Other investors include Alumni Ventures, ARK Invest, Benhamou Global Ventures, Granada Funds, Hike Ventures, The Mercantile Companies and Versus Ventures.
The investment comes as artificial intelligence companies increasingly move beyond helping consumers discover products toward allowing AI agents to complete purchases.
For retailers, that creates a new infrastructure problem.
Every AI assistant, marketplace and shopping platform may require different connections to product catalogs, inventory systems, payments and checkout.
firmly wants to eliminate that integration burden.
One Connection for AI Commerce
The company's firmly Connect platform allows merchants to make their products available through AI agents and other digital commerce channels without building new integrations for each platform.
Its infrastructure connects to existing merchant systems, including product catalogs, pricing, inventory and checkout.
The goal is to allow retailers to participate in agent-driven commerce while keeping control of their customer relationships and payment infrastructure.
firmly says its technology can provide access to more than 11 million merchants representing over $900 billion in gross merchandise volume.
That figure describes the broader commerce footprint accessible through its infrastructure, not revenue earned by firmly or transactions processed by the company itself.
Under firmly's approach, retailers remain the merchants of record rather than transferring that responsibility to AI platforms.
Launching Ask Agent
Alongside the fundraising announcement, firmly introduced Ask Agent, a conversational shopping experience that retailers can embed directly into their websites.
Instead of navigating traditional product categories, customers can describe what they want in natural language.
The system uses the retailer's live catalog, inventory and pricing to recommend relevant products.
Customers can also proceed through checkout inside the conversation, with support for loyalty programs, additional purchases and post-purchase customer service.
The company says merchants can add Ask Agent with a single line of JavaScript.
According to firmly, early merchant deployments have generated conversion rate improvements of up to 18% and average order value increases of up to 23%.
Those are company-reported results from selected early deployments rather than independently verified averages across its customer base.
The Infrastructure Behind Agentic Commerce
firmly was co-founded by CEO Kumar Senthil, president Damien Balsan and CTO Murali Krishnamurthy.
The founding team brings experience in e-commerce technology, payments and digital platforms.
The company's strategy is to become an infrastructure provider rather than a consumer-facing shopping destination.
That positioning matters as businesses such as OpenAI, Google and major payment networks develop systems that allow AI agents to initiate and complete transactions.
For merchants, the potential benefit is reaching customers across new channels without rebuilding their commerce infrastructure.
For firmly, the opportunity is to provide the technical layer connecting those channels to actual retailers.
The Challenge of Making AI Shopping Reliable
Agent-driven purchasing creates new requirements for inventory accuracy, transaction authorization, payment security and consumer protection.
An AI assistant recommending the wrong product is inconvenient. An agent buying the wrong product introduces financial and operational consequences.
firmly will need to make those workflows reliable as AI platforms and payment standards evolve.
The company has not disclosed its revenue, profitability or transaction volumes.
Its $15 million Series A will support international expansion and integration with additional merchants and commerce platforms.
The larger opportunity is to become part of the infrastructure behind AI-driven commerce before the market settles on its dominant shopping interfaces.
Sources: GlobeNewswire via Yahoo · PYMNTS · Mastercard · Documentation