Palma.ai has raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding to help enterprises govern AI agents operating across their internal systems, as companies move from experimenting with chatbots to giving AI the ability to perform real work.

The round was led by D11Z, with participation from Plug and Play Ventures, Deel, Scale Now Ventures and angel investors including senior executives from Cisco and Deel. Both D11Z and Plug and Play are already using Palma.ai internally, giving their employees access to AI agents with defined permissions and controls.

When AI Gets Access to Company Systems

Enterprise AI is moving into a more complicated phase. Instead of simply generating text or answering questions, agents can access company data, use software tools and carry out tasks on behalf of employees.

That creates a different infrastructure problem. Connecting an AI model to an internal system is relatively straightforward, particularly with standards such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Controlling what that agent is allowed to do across multiple tools and AI products is more difficult.

Palma.ai is positioning itself as the control layer between AI agents and enterprise systems.

Turning Permissions Into Infrastructure

The platform gives administrators a central console for setting permissions, tools and policies across different AI products and workflows. Its Skills feature can turn approved tools into repeatable workflows for tasks such as updating CRM systems or preparing financial reports.

When an agent attempts to use a tool, Palma.ai checks the action against the configured policies. Unauthorised actions can be blocked, while activity is recorded through an audit trail.

The platform is designed to work across products including Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and custom workflows. That cross-platform approach is important because enterprises are unlikely to standardise their entire AI environment around a single model or vendor.

From AI Adoption to AI Governance

The emergence of agentic AI changes the enterprise software stack. Companies now need to think not only about which AI tools employees can use, but also about what those tools are allowed to access and do.

That creates a new layer between AI products and existing enterprise systems. Governance, permissions and auditability become part of the infrastructure required to deploy agents safely at scale.

Palma.ai’s own customers illustrate the proposition. D11Z and Plug and Play are using the platform internally, while Palma.ai says it has been live since early 2026. The company will use the new funding to expand its sales and engineering teams as enterprise adoption grows.

The Next Enterprise AI Bottleneck

For AI startups, the opportunity may increasingly sit outside the model itself. As companies deploy more agents, the challenge shifts toward managing how those agents interact with sensitive data, software and business processes.

Palma.ai is betting that enterprises will need a dedicated control layer to manage that complexity. If agentic AI becomes embedded across everyday operations, governance could become an essential part of the infrastructure rather than an additional security feature.

Key Takeaways for Fintech Startups

Palma.ai’s funding round highlights several lessons for fintech founders:

• AI agents create new infrastructure needs: Giving AI the ability to act creates requirements around permissions, monitoring and auditability.
  
  
• Interoperability can be a product advantage: Enterprises are likely to operate multiple AI platforms rather than rely on one model.
  
  
• Governance needs to be built into workflows: Policies are more useful when they control actions directly rather than simply monitor them afterwards.
  
  
• Early customers can validate the infrastructure: Having investors use the product internally provides a direct environment for testing enterprise workflows.

As AI agents move deeper into enterprise systems, the infrastructure around them will become increasingly important. If you’re building fintech or enterprise technology around AI and need help turning an emerging capability into a scalable product and growth strategy, Contact us.