Agentic commerce needs answers before it can scale
The Agentic Payments Alliance is a coalition of more than 25 payment networks, processors, blockchains, and technology companies working through the questions agent-driven commerce raises.
“No single company should get to decide how agents transact on someone's behalf. That has to come from the platforms building the rails, the regulators setting the rules, and the innovators closest to how agents are actually being used today. We initiated the Agentic Payments Alliance to put all of these parties in the same room, and to do it now, while the category is still taking shape.”
“The risk in a moment like this is not that the industry moves too slowly — it's that innovation outpaces alignment. For decades, Mastercard has helped shape the standards that enable commerce at scale, and our participation in the Agentic Payments Alliance is a natural extension of that work for the agentic era.”
The APA is none of these things. It is a working coalition. There is nothing to integrate and nothing to settle through. Members produce research and frameworks, test emerging standards, and take shared positions on policy.
The Agentic Payments Alliance does not compete with them. Several of the teams behind protocols in this space are founding members. Testing emerging standards for agent identity and authorization is part of the Alliance's work, and that work is more useful with the protocol authors in the room than without them.
Rain convened the alliance, but its members run it collectively and set the charter and mission together. No single company owns it or controls its output.
Members participate in the working groups, contribute to shared research and frameworks, and help test emerging standards. Members also get early access to startups building on the frontlines of agentic commerce.
The Alliance seeks organizations across payments, financial services, technology, and policy. Please submit your information using the form below.