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Cloudflare

“Can the internet's connectivity and security layer become the payments rail for AI agents?”

Founded2009
HQSan Francisco, California, United States
FoundersMatthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, Lee Holloway
Total raised$182.1M (pre-IPO)
Latest roundIPO September 2019 (NYSE: NET)
IndustryInfrastructure / Internet security & CDN

The story

Founded 2009 as a web performance and security company, Cloudflare grew into a foundational internet infrastructure provider (CDN, DDoS, DNS, Zero Trust) and IPO'd in 2019. In 2026 Cloudflare began rolling out a stablecoin wallet aimed at AI agents paying for APIs and online content — an embedded-finance play tightly coupled to its core AI Gateway / developer platform positioning rather than a broad fintech pivot.

Last 12 months

2026-08

Cloudflare kicks off stablecoin wallet rollout for AI agents to pay for APIs and online content; users can claim wallet handles now with funding/payment features to follow.

2025-10-14

Co-developed the Trusted Agent Protocol with Visa — Web Bot Auth (HTTP Message Signatures with public-key cryptography) as the underlying agent-authentication layer, letting merchants verify legitimate AI shopping agents and distinguish them from malicious bots.

2025-10-24

Confirmed Web Bot Auth is also the authentication foundation behind Mastercard's "Agent Pay" and American Express's own in-development agentic-commerce offering — the same cryptographic agent-identity mechanism behind Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol, each built as a separate product by its own network.

Product timeline

2010

Cloudflare launches publicly at TechCrunch Disrupt.· launch

2019

IPO on NYSE under ticker NET.· ipo

2026

Cloudflare kicks off stablecoin wallet rollout enabling AI agents to pay for APIs and online content.· crypto

Consortium membership

Cloudflare is a named member of an industry alliance building shared payment/settlement infrastructure alongside these organizations — full details on /consortiums.

x402 FoundationOperational · launched 2026-07

Coinbase

GoogleAmazon Web Services

RippleSolana Foundation

Block

The stack

0 layers disclosed in Cloudflare’s embedded-finance stack

Accounting gap: none

Cloudflare — frequently asked

Who founded Cloudflare?

Cloudflare was founded by Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn and Lee Holloway and is founded in 2009, headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States.

How much funding has Cloudflare raised?

Cloudflare has raised $182.1M (pre-IPO) in total (latest round: IPO September 2019 (NYSE: NET)).

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