Naïve raises $28.5 million to automate business creation and operations

Palo Alto-based AI startup Naïve Inc. has raised $28.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners, bringing its total funding to $32 million. The company provides infrastructure and APIs that allow AI agents to automate business creation and operations, attracting over 30,000 developer customers and scaling its annual run-rate revenue tenfold to the low double-digit millions. Naïve is also developing serverless runtimes and model routers to optimize high agent operational costs.

Naïve Series A funding round

• ▪Angel investors participating in Naïve Inc.'s Series A round included Gokul Rajaram, Apollo.io co-founder Tim Zheng, and former HubSpot COO JD Sherman.
• ▪Palo Alto-based artificial intelligence lab Naïve Inc. raised $28.5 million in a Series A funding round announced on August 6, 2026.
• ▪The $28.5 million Series A funding round brought Naïve Inc.'s total capital raised to approximately $32 million.
• ▪Nexus Venture Partners led Naïve Inc.'s $28.5 million Series A round, with participation from Y Combinator, Zetta, Liquid 2, and several angel investors.

AI agent business automation platform

• ▪Naïve Inc. provides a governance layer that allows users to set budgets, restrict AI agent capabilities, and require human approval for sensitive actions.
• ▪Naïve Inc. provides an API that packages payments, email accounts, phone numbers, cloud infrastructure, storage, and company incorporation to automate business setup.
• ▪Naïve Inc. offers business templates for AI SEO, full-stack SaaS apps, recruiting, accounting, customer support, and a mobile emulator for operating smartphone apps.
• ▪Naïve Inc.'s platform allows AI agents to orchestrate the formation of a U.S. LLC, though human users must still complete KYC/KYB processes and make payments.

Agent operational cost optimization

• ▪Naïve Inc. is building a serverless runtime that runs AI agents in lightweight JavaScript environments rather than full virtual machines to lower deployment costs.
• ▪Naïve Inc.'s cost-reduction infrastructure includes a model router to send queries to efficient models, a memory system to store business context, and a work orchestrator.
• ▪Naïve Inc. is developing infrastructure to reduce the high operational costs of running AI agents, which consume resources during model calls and idle periods.

Autonomous business use cases

• ▪Customers are using Naïve Inc.'s infrastructure to run autonomous businesses, including AI automation agencies, faceless TikTok and YouTube content channels, and a rental car agency.
• ▪Naïve Inc. CEO Sean Dorje stated that AI automation agencies are the fastest-growing business type currently being built on the company's platform.

Developer adoption metrics

• ▪Naïve Inc. signed up over 30,000 developer customers within months of launching its business automation infrastructure platform.
• ▪Naïve Inc. currently employs 10 full-time employees as of the August 6, 2026 funding announcement.

Revenue growth trajectory

• ▪Naïve Inc. achieved an annual revenue run-rate in the low double-digit millions prior to its August 6, 2026 funding announcement.
• ▪Naïve Inc. scaled its annual run-rate revenue tenfold over a six-month period leading up to August 2026.

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