firmly raises $15M Series A led by Squarepoint Capital to connect merchants to AI shopping channels

firmly, a Seattle agentic commerce platform, has raised a $15 million Series A led by Squarepoint Capital, with J.P. Morgan Payments, Mastercard and Samsung NEXT participating. Alumni Ventures, ARK Invest, Benhamou Global Ventures, Granada Funds, Hike Ventures, The Mercantile Companies and Versus Ventures also joined, bringing total funding to about $20 million.

Founded in 2019, the company connects merchants' existing online stores to AI assistants, marketplaces and other shopping channels, so shoppers can buy inside those apps while the merchant stays merchant of record with its own payment provider. CEO Kumar Senthil co-founded it with Damien Balsan, a co-founder of LoopPay.

firmly handles the merchant side of Mastercard Agent Connect, and Best Buy, Furniture.com and Backcountry are among its retail customers. It also launched Ask Agent, a conversational shopping assistant for merchants' own sites, with reported gains of up to 18% in conversion and up to 23% in average order value.