Paid, the AI agent ‘results-based billing’ startup from Manny Medina, raises huge $21M seed

Manny Medina, best known as the founder of sales automation unicorn Outreach (valued at $4.4 billion), has once again caught investors’ attention with his new venture, Paid.

The London-based AI startup has secured $21.6 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. This follows its earlier €10 million pre-seed round raised in March, bringing its total funding to $33.3 million before even reaching Series A. According to sources, the company’s valuation now exceeds $100 million.

Rethinking AI Monetisation

Paid, which emerged from stealth earlier this year, isn’t selling AI agents directly. Instead, it provides a platform for agent developers to bill clients based on the measurable value their agents deliver — a model known as “results-based billing.”

Founder Manny Medina explained that Paid enables developers to charge customers for “points of margin saved” rather than through traditional per-user or unlimited-use fees. This marks a shift from the SaaS era’s pricing models to something designed for the AI agent age.

He added that existing models don’t fit:

• Per-user pricing is impractical since developers already pay usage fees to model and cloud providers.

• Unlimited-use models risk financial loss when agents consume excessive compute resources.

“Agent providers need to show the value their agents deliver,” Medina told TechCrunch. “If you’re a quiet agent, you don’t get paid. You need infrastructure that allows the agent to charge for the additional work it performs.”

Tackling the AI Value Problem

Medina’s approach addresses a broader issue — many enterprises still struggle to extract tangible value from AI. A recent MIT study found that only 5% of AI projects reach production, while 95% fail to deliver measurable outcomes.

“Companies don’t want to pay for AI slop,” Medina said. “They want results, not more automated emails no one reads.”

Early Traction and Investor Confidence

Paid’s early adopters include Artisan, a viral sales automation startup, and IFS, an enterprise software vendor that recently joined its customer base.

Alexander Schmitt of Lightspeed noted that his firm has invested over $2.5 billion in AI infrastructure and application-layer startups in the last three years. Yet, most projects falter due to unclear value attribution.

“The core problem is that no one can really attach value to what agents are doing today,” Schmitt said. “Paid’s approach is something we haven’t seen anyone else build.”

Alongside Lightspeed, FUS, E, and EQT Ventures also joined the seed round. As AI adoption accelerates, Paid’s model could become a cornerstone for monetising autonomous agents in the enterprise world.