Exclusive: JPMorgan and Mastercard back AI shopping startup Firmly
Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios
Firmly, which helps retailers sell through AI shopping assistants, raised a $15 million Series A backed by J.P. Morgan Payments and Mastercard, CEO Kumar Senthil tells Axios Pro exclusively.
Why it matters: AI shopping services are a promising sales channel, but can be high-maintenance for retailers.
Follow the money: Squarepoint Capital led the round, which also included Samsung NEXT.
- The round brings Firmly's total funding to roughly $20 million.
How it works: Firmly lets retailers sell their products directly inside AI shopping assistants and other digital services, with live pricing, inventory and checkout.
- Shoppers can buy without leaving the service, while retailers choose which products to offer and keep their existing payment providers and customer relationships.
Firmly connects shopping services to retailers with their explicit permission, giving merchants control over which channels can access their stores.
- Its software identifies and connects to the systems behind the storefront, rather than using a browser agent to navigate pages and click through checkout.
What they're saying: "Merchants are not in the business of managing protocols. They're in business of selling products," Senthil says.
State of play: Firmly charges merchants $2,000-$15,000 a month, depending on the total value of merchandise they sell, Senthil says.
- He says connecting a merchant took four to six weeks in 2024, fell to a week in 2025 and now takes a day or less, including testing.
Between the lines: Mastercard is a commercial partner as well as an investor, using Firmly for merchant catalog and cart capabilities in its Agent Connect offering.
- Senthil says Mastercard is recruiting merchants for the service, giving Firmly a route to new customers.
Context: Senthil previously led e-commerce product development at Samsung, where he worked with Firmly co-founder and CTO Murali Krishnamurthy.
- Co-founder Damien Balsan also helped found LoopPay, which Samsung acquired.
What's next: Firmly plans to use the capital to expand its merchant network and connections to shopping channels.
- The company is also introducing Ask Agent, a shopping assistant for retailers' websites that lets customers describe what they want, receive recommendations and check out within the conversation.
