t54 Raises $5M Seed Round With Ripple, Franklin Templeton

TLDR

• t54 Labs raised 5 million dollars in a seed funding round co-led by Franklin Templeton and Ripple.
• The company builds identity and risk tools for autonomous agents that conduct financial transactions.
• Anagram and PL Capital joined the round along with several crypto-focused investors.
• t54 operates on networks including XRP Ledger, Solana, and Base.
• The startup plans to hire engineers and a developer relations lead to expand its platform.

t54 Labs has secured $5 million in seed funding to build a trust layer for agentic finance. Anagram, PL Capital, and Franklin Templeton co-led the round with support from Ripple and others. Founder Chandler Fang confirmed the raise and outlined plans to expand infrastructure and hiring.

The San Francisco-based startup launched in January 2025 and focuses on identity and compliance tools for autonomous agents. Fang said no investor received board or advisory seats in the round. He declined to share the valuation or timeline details.

Franklin Templeton and Ripple Back t54’s Seed Financing

Anagram and PL Capital co-led the seed round alongside Franklin Templeton. Ripple, Virtuals Ventures, Blockchain Coinvestors, and ABCDE also participated in the financing. Fang described the raise as the company’s first external funding round.

Fang said t54 employs 12 staff members and plans new hires. The company will add two full-time engineers and one developer relations or business development lead. These hires will support product development and institutional partnerships.

Tony Pecore from Franklin Templeton addressed the investment in a statement. He said, “t54 is building the trust and verification framework that institutional finance will require.” He added that institutions need infrastructure as autonomous agents enter financial markets.

Fang stated that no investor secured governance rights in the company. He confirmed that the round structure remains undisclosed. He also declined to comment on valuation metrics.

Platform Targets Identity, Risk, and Credit for Autonomous Agents

t54 builds tools that verify and monitor AI agents conducting financial transactions. Fang said agents lack standardized identity checks and risk controls. He explained that businesses need accountability when autonomous systems move funds.

The platform includes four core components that address these gaps. It offers identity verification under a system called “know your agent.” It also runs a real-time risk engine that flags suspicious activity before settlement.

The company plans to extend credit lines to verified agents. Credit decisions will rely on identity records, risk scores, and transaction history. The system also combines identity, risk controls, and settlement in one interface.

He added that blockchain serves as a settlement and accountability layer. The infrastructure operates across multiple payment rails.

t54 currently runs on the XRP Ledger, Solana, and Base networks. The company also created x402-secure for the Coinbase-incubated x402 agent payment protocol. Last month, Evernorth announced plans to integrate t54’s tools into its XRP Ledger treasury operations.

Evernorth aims to raise over $1 billion for institutional XRP holdings. Under the partnership, Evernorth will use t54 infrastructure for autonomous treasury management. Fang said the collaboration expands institutional deployment of the platform.

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