AEON Raises $8M Pre-Seed for AI Agent Payment Settlement Layer

AEON, a company focused on a settlement layer for AI agents, has successfully raised $8 million in a pre-seed funding round. YZi Labs, an affiliate of Binance, led this investment. Other participants included IDG Capital, HashKey Capital, Stanford Blockchain Builders Fund, and Oak Grove Ventures. AEON plans to use these funds to develop its settlement layer, which will support interactions between AI agents. The company aims to build a financial foundation for what it calls a "new economic paradigm." AEON previously launched an AI payment product in May to help AI agents connect with over 50 million offline merchants globally. What's interesting is AEON's partnership with BNB Chain, through which it launched the x402 Facilitator. This initiative aims to provide service providers with verifiable transactions, on-chain settlement, and tamper-proof receipts. AEON's CEO, Eddy Lyu, believes the economy is shifting towards value exchange among autonomous agents and AI. He states this new economic paradigm requires its own financial foundation. The company will also strengthen cooperation with ecosystem partners like Coinbase and BNB Chain. This funding could significantly impact how AI agents conduct financial transactions in the future.