The Berlin fintech is expanding into North America while opening its regulated B2B payment infrastructure to automated workflows.
Pliant has raised $80 million in a Series C co-led by Seaya Nova and Speedinvest, after surpassing $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
The Berlin-based fintech announced the round November 4, with Illuminate Financial, Motive Partners and Molten Ventures also participating. The investment follows three consecutive years in which the company says it doubled its business.
Founded in 2020 by Malte Rau and Fabian Terner, Pliant provides modular B2B payment infrastructure, including commercial card issuing, accounts, foreign exchange and spend management.
Beyond Corporate Cards
Pliant began by helping companies manage business payments, but it also provides APIs and regulated infrastructure to banks, fintechs and software providers seeking to embed payment capabilities into their products.
The company reports that it processes billions of dollars in annual payment volume and employs more than 300 people across eight offices. It issues commercial cards in 13 currencies and 32 countries through its European license and regulated partners in the UK and US.
Its growth is partly driven by companies that want payment functions without building the licensing, card issuing and compliance systems independently.
Allowing Agents to Initiate Payments
Pliant is positioning its platform for a world in which AI agents do more than summarize invoices or recommend transactions. Businesses increasingly want software agents to initiate and manage payments subject to human-defined permissions and controls.
The company says third-party agents can connect to its systems using Model Context Protocol, while Pliant's own AI tools help customers automate finance processes. The promise is to combine programmable payments with authorization, control and auditability.
This introduces a different competitive challenge from ordinary spend management: trust becomes as important as user experience. Businesses need to know which agent initiated a transfer, under whose authority and with what ability to reverse or investigate mistakes.
Expansion and Execution
Pliant will use the new capital to expand in the US and Canada, prepare for further international markets and develop its AI-enabled payment products.
Its reported $100 million ARR gives investors a meaningful operating metric, but the company has not disclosed the new valuation, profitability or gross margin.
The next question is whether Pliant can become a default regulated payment layer for autonomous business software, rather than just another fast-growing corporate card provider.
Sources: Pliant · Pliant Series C announcement · Pliant ARR announcement