Company intelligence
As of September 22, 2026, Baselayer has raised at least $55M in equity across 2 sourced funding rounds.
It was founded in 2024 by Timothy Hyde and Jonathan Awad, according to the company.[1] Its software helps organizations verify businesses and assess risk during onboarding and underwriting.[2] Baselayer says its platform serves more than 2,300 financial institutions and payments companies, about one in five U.S. financial institutions.[2] Alongside the round it launched the Agentic Identity Suite, which is designed to let banks and merchants verify which AI agent is initiating a transaction, whom it represents and whether it is authorized.[2] The suite uses cryptographic verification to establish agent identity and authorization.[2] Baselayer is also building an agentic fraud consortium on top of its existing identity and risk infrastructure.[2] Companies it works with on agent identity include FIS, Prove, Socure, Exa, Parallel Web Systems, Natural, Nevermined and Lane.[2] The new capital is for expanding its identity infrastructure into autonomous commerce and building technology to verify agent-initiated financial activity.[2]
The company says its infrastructure has helped customers prevent more than $1 billion in fraud losses.[1]
Baselayer sells business identity and risk checks to 2,300+ financial institutions and raised a $35M Series A led by M13 in September 2026.
Baselayer lists a product line that runs from identity to credit to fraud on its homepage. It says its Business Verification product can verify the identity, contacts and legitimacy of 100% of U.S. businesses. It says its Industry Prediction product uses AI trained on signals from over 120MM business records. Other listed products are KYB Rating, Business Pre.Fill, lien search and filing, lawsuit and bankruptcy checks, portfolio monitoring, a fraud consortium and a Risk Co.Pilot. These are company descriptions and were not independently tested.[1]
Baselayer introduced a Baselayer MCP on September 8, 2026, which gives AI agents direct access to its business identity and risk data. An agent can start from a business name or website, and Baselayer resolves the entity, connects people and relationships, surfaces risks and returns the evidence behind them. The post lists compliance, procurement, finance and credit, financial analysis and sales as use cases.[2]
Baselayer's reported customer network grew over 2026. A February 2026 company post cited a network of over 2,200 financial institutions. The September 2026 release says the platform provides identity verification and risk infrastructure to 2,300+ financial institutions and payments companies. Both counts are company-reported and unaudited.[3],[4]
Baselayer hired Craig Rismiller as Head of Growth in February 2026, launched its MCP in September and announced its Series A on September 22. Those dates come from its own posts, and no earlier funding round appears in the sources reviewed.[3],[2],[4]
Baselayer's release says M13 manages $2.2 billion in assets and has backed 18 companies at seed or Series A that later reached unicorn status. Karl Alomar, a Managing Partner at M13, is quoted in the release on the identity problem for agent commerce.[4]
Baselayer says the new capital will support its expansion from business identity into infrastructure for verifying agent-initiated financial activity. No valuation has been disclosed. The sources reviewed do not state total funding, revenue or earlier rounds.[5]
Baselayer's About page and Series A release identify Jonathan Awad as co-founder and CEO and Timothy Hyde as co-founder and CTO.[6],[4]
Baselayer named Craig Rismiller as Head of Growth on February 9, 2026. The announcement says he most recently was Chief Strategy Officer and EVP of Strategic Initiatives at Amount, a lending and deposit originations platform. Amount was acquired by FIS in 2025. It also says he spent 12 years at Capital One earlier in his career. The announcement gives his 2026 target as 3x ARR and states no absolute ARR figure.[3]
Baselayer's customer story page lists Slope, Fundbox, Grasshopper Bank, Breakout Finance, Oatfi and LoanPro. One story is titled "Oatfi Reduces Manual Reviews by 52% with Baselayer Business Search."[7]
Baselayer's homepage attributes a testimonial to Ian Bradley, Head of Ops & Technology at Breakout Finance, who says one vendor is matching more than 98% of lien hits correctly while the other is closer to 70%. The same page quotes Ron Whyte of FIS Decision Solutions and Chex Systems calling Baselayer a key partner in how FIS is using AI to enhance its identity products.[1]
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| Date | Round | Amount | Valuation | Lead investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 22, 2026 | Series A | $35M | — | Crunchbase News | |
| Aug 3, 2026 | Series A | $20M | — | — | AlleyWatchPulse story |
Equity only. “Equity raised” above sums the rounds with a dated, linked source; rumored rounds, tender offers and secondary sales are listed but not counted, and debt financing is listed separately.
On September 22, 2026, Baselayer announced a $35 million Series A led by M13, with participation from Torch Capital, Picus Ventures, Afore Capital and Matt Thompson of Socure.[1]
Baselayer raised a $35 million Series A led by M13 to launch identity verification for AI agents transacting with financial institutions, extending a fraud-prevention network that already covers more than 2,300 banks and payments companies.
Baselayer raised a $20M Series A to automate fraud and risk checks for the 1,900+ banks and government agencies it already serves, betting the long-tail-institution market beats chasing megabanks.
Baselayer raised $20M in Series A funding to automate business risk assessment and fraud prevention for financial institutions and government agencies, bringing its total raised to $47M.
On September 22, 2026, Baselayer announced a $35 million Series A led by M13, with participation from Torch Capital, Picus Ventures, Afore Capital and Matt Thompson of Socure.[1]
Awad is co-founder and CEO, and Hyde is CTO.[2]
Baselayer has raised at least $55M in equity across 2 sourced funding rounds tracked by Value Add VC. The most recent was a $35M Series A in September 2026, reported by Crunchbase News. Debt financing, tender offers and secondary sales are not counted.
Baselayer was founded in 2024 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA, according to PR Newswire and Crunchbase News.
Figures are labelled Reported (a source states it), Estimated, Derived (computed from other facts) or Rumored (in talks / unconfirmed). Rumors never replace a confirmed figure. Each figure keeps its own as-of date; history is preserved rather than overwritten.
