<\/p>\n
Circle cofounder Sean Neville\u2019s new venture, Catena Labs, has raised $18 million to build an AI-native bank.<\/p>\n
On May 20, Circle cofounder Sean Neville announced<\/a> that his startup Catena Labs has raised $18 million in a seed funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz\u2019s crypto division, as originally reported by Fortune.<\/a> Other investors include Breyer Capital, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and NFL legend Tom Brady. The funding deal included equity and token warrants\u2014rights to a future crypto that the company has not yet released.<\/p>\n Neville, who cofounded Circle, the issuer of the second-biggest stablecoin by market cap USDC Coin (USDC), remains on the company\u2019s board but left his operational role in early 2020. Since then, he\u2019s been quietly working on Catena Labs, alongside cofounder Matt Venables, formerly a senior engineering executive at Circle.<\/p>\n Catena Labs grew out of a venture studio the two launched in 2021 to explore emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and decentralized identity. In 2023, following the rapid rise of AI apps like OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, the team committed fully to building infrastructure tailored to AI-driven finance.<\/p>\n Catena Labs represents that commitment\u2014a vision for an \u201cAI-native bank\u201d built for a future where financial transactions are increasingly managed by AI agents. According to Neville, Catena Labs is developing software that integrates AI with financial systems, focusing on payment automation and digital identity protocols. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Though the company hasn\u2019t detailed a full product roadmap, it has built an open-source protocol for AI-powered payments and identity verification. <\/p>\n \u201cYou should be able to meet your financial advisor and your banker everywhere you want to be,\u201d Neville told Fortune.<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Neville explained that while the system may incorporate blockchain and stablecoins where useful, it won\u2019t be defined by them.<\/p>\n The startup, which currently has a team of nine, remains in early stages, with no announced timeline for product release or token launch. Neville declined to disclose the company\u2019s valuation.<\/p>\n The development of Catena Labs comes amid speculation that Circle, Neville\u2019s former company, could be acquired by Coinbase, which co-founded USDC and remains deeply intertwined with Circle\u2019s operations. While IPO plans are still active, Circle has reportedly engaged<\/a> in informal sale talks and is seeking a $5 billion valuation.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Circle cofounder Sean Neville\u2019s new venture, Catena Labs, has raised $18 million to build an AI-native bank. On May 20, Circle cofounder Sean Neville announced that his startup Catena Labs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n