We are announcing our lead investment of $21 million in Paid, a startup developing foundational economic infrastructure tailored for AI agents. This seed round reflects our belief that a critical gap exists in how businesses measure, price, and profit from autonomous AI systems—and Paid is building the tools to close it. n nThe rise of AI agents marks one of the most transformative shifts in labor and productivity since the industrial era. Projections suggest these digital workers could boost global GDP by as much as 7% by 2030. Yet despite high enthusiasm, 95% of generative AI initiatives fail to move beyond pilot stages. The primary obstacle isn’t technical—it’s economic. Current financial and operational systems lack the transparency needed to track the real cost and value generated by AI-driven workflows. n nThis lack of visibility creates a structural bottleneck. Without accurate measurement, companies struggle to justify scaling AI deployments. Founders of Paid, led by CEO Manny Medina, argue that traditional software pricing models—such as flat monthly subscriptions—are ill-suited for dynamic AI operations. Unlike static SaaS tools, AI agents operate continuously, consume computing resources variably, and produce outcomes that fluctuate significantly in impact. For example, a sales automation agent might generate $10,000 in leads one week and ten times that the next. Charging a fixed fee fails to reflect this variability, leading to under-monetization or customer skepticism. n nEarly adopters like Artisan and Boon reported strong performance from their AI systems but faced difficulty capturing proportional revenue. After integrating Paid’s platform, both companies achieved revenue increases of 20% to 40% using the same underlying technology—simply by aligning pricing with actual value delivered. n nPaid’s collaboration with IFS, an industrial software firm valued at $15 billion, further validates its approach. IFS leverages AI to optimize asset maintenance, service logistics, and supply chain operations. Mark Moffat, IFS’s CEO, stated: “Paid is an instrumental element in how we are scaling our AI Agent platform offering to our partners and customers. With Paid, we are able to bring agentic AI solutions into Industrial verticals at an accelerated pace.” n nThe platform offers five core functionalities designed specifically for AI economics: n n- **Value Demonstration**: Custom-branded dashboards that transparently display the business results achieved by AI agents, turning abstract automation into measurable outcomes. n- **Flexible Pricing Setup**: Rapid deployment of customized pricing models per client, based on desired outcomes rather than usage tiers. n- **Performance-Linked Models**: Transition from user-based licensing to outcome-driven or hybrid pricing, including revenue-sharing agreements. n- **Granular Cost Monitoring**: Real-time tracking of expenses tied to individual agent actions, interactions, and workflow executions. n- **Business Intelligence Tools**: Shared analytics interfaces that reveal agent efficiency, customer profitability, and optimization opportunities. n nThis investment underscores a broader thesis: the next phase of AI innovation will be driven not only by breakthroughs in intelligence but by systems that enable sustainable, scalable deployment. Infrastructure that makes AI economically intelligible will be as crucial as the models themselves. n nManny Medina, who previously founded Outreach—a platform that brought data-driven clarity to chaotic sales processes—is now applying his expertise to AI agent economics. His vision is to create the operational backbone for an emerging class of autonomous digital labor. “Our mission is to grow the AI agent economy by solving these fundamental infrastructure gaps,” Medina said. “Paid is your partner for the age of agents.” n nAt Lightspeed, we’re confident that Paid is positioned to become essential infrastructure in the AI ecosystem. The future of work depends not just on intelligent machines, but on organizations’ ability to deploy, scale, and fairly monetize them. n n— news from Lightspeed Venture Partnersnn
— News Original —nThe AI Agent Economy Has a $19 Trillion Problem: Our Investment in PaidnToday, we’re excited to announce our investment in Paid, the company seeking to build the missing economic infrastructure for AI agents, as we lead their $21 million seed round. n nWhy AI Agents Break Traditional Software Economics n nWe are witnessing the most significant transformation of work since the Industrial Revolution. AI agents are projected to contribute up to 7% in increased global GDP by 2030. Yet early in this adoption cycle, we see the “Gen AI Paradox”: 95% of AI pilots fail to get pushed into production. That’s because, in our view, the core issue is economic visibility — impact and cost cannot be accurately measured with current tools. n nThis opacity results in a critical infrastructure gap that threatens to stall the AI agent revolution just as it reaches its inflection point. Manny Medina, Paid’s CEO and Co-Founder, discusses this gap on his podcast here. n nAI agents, who promise to be autonomous digital workers, require rebuilding the entire economic framework for how we price, track, and monetize digital labor from the ground up. Traditional SaaS pricing models simply don’t work for AI agents. n nThese agents consume computing resources dynamically, operate around the clock, and deliver business outcomes that vary wildly based on the complexity of work performed. A sales AI agent might generate $10,000 in pipeline one week and $100,000 the next, yet most companies can only charge the same monthly fee regardless. n nThe result? AI agent builders consistently undercharge for high-value work while customers question what they’re paying for. Companies like Artisan and Boon were seeing strong AI agent performance but struggling to capture fair value until they implemented Paid’s platform. Now they’re seeing 20-40% revenue increases with the same underlying technology. n nPaid works closely with IFS, whose AI solution helps industrial companies to maintain assets, manage service operations, or manufacture and distribute goods — last valued at $15B. Mark Moffat, CEO of IFS, shares: “Paid is an instrumental element in how we are scaling our AI Agent platform offering to our partners and customers. With Paid, we are able to bring agentic AI solutions into Industrial verticals at an accelerated pace.” n nPaid is Building the Missing Infrastructure Layer Application Builders in the Age of AI n nThis is precisely why we believe Paid has built something essential: the first comprehensive business system purpose-built for the economics of AI agent work. The platform provides five critical capabilities: n nCustomer Value Proof: Branded portals that show customers exactly what their AI agents are accomplishing and the ROI they’re generating. Making invisible AI work a tangible business outcome. n nCustom Pricing, Fast: Deploy per-customer pricing in minutes, aligned to the value customers are looking for. n nOutcome-Based & Hybrid Models: Replace seat-based pricing with AI-native pricing models to enable revenue sharing and success-based models. n nCost Tracking: Real-time telemetry that tracks exact costs for every agent action, customer interaction, and workflow execution. n nAI Business Intelligence: Team-wide dashboards providing visibility into agent performance, customer profitability, and actionable optimization insights. n nThis investment also reflects our broader conviction about where AI value creation is heading: the next wave of AI value will come from infrastructure that operationalizes AI deployment at scale and application companies that harness the value created. n nThe Category-Defining Founder Behind the Solution n nWhat gives us exceptional confidence is the founder tackling this problem, Manny Medina, who previously built Outreach, an established sales engagement platform. Before Outreach, sales teams were flying blind on prospect engagement, unable to systematically track what worked across their outreach efforts. Manny built the infrastructure that transformed chaotic sales processes into measurable, optimizable systems. n nNow he’s applying that same category-defining vision to AI agents. We believe Paid is positioned to become essential infrastructure for AI agents by solving the pricing and value demonstration problem. Manny shares, “Our mission is to grow the AI agent economy by solving these fundamental infrastructure gaps. Paid is your partner for the age of agents.” n nAt Lightspeed, we’re proud to partner with Manny and the entire Paid team as they build the business engine for the AI agent revolution. n nThe future of work isn’t just about AI that can think. It’s about AI that businesses can successfully deploy, scale, and monetize. Make sure to follow Manny and his thoughts on how agents evolve in his podcast and join Paid.ai on their journey as a team member! n nThe content here should not be viewed as investment advice, nor does it constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities. The views expressed here are those of the individual Lightspeed Management Company, L.L.C. (“Lightspeed”) personnel and are not the views of Lightspeed or its affiliates; other market participants could take different views. n nUnless otherwise indicated, the inclusion of any third-party firm and/or company names, brands and/or logos does not imply any affiliation with these firms or companies.