Foundation Raises $6.4M to Add AI Auth to Hardware Wallets

Foundation raised $6.4 million in a financing round led by Fulgur Ventures, with participation from Arche Capital, to broaden the use of its Bitcoin hardware wallets into identity, multi‑factor authentication and authorization for AI agents. The new funding brings the company’s total capital raised to $16.5 million. Foundation did not disclose the round’s structure or a post‑money valuation.

The company announced general availability of its Passport Prime device, which began shipping to pre‑order customers in March and is now available to all buyers. Passport Prime combines a Bitcoin hardware wallet with FIDO security keys, storage for two‑factor authentication, an encrypted secrets vault and 50 GB of encrypted storage. Foundation describes the device as part of a category it calls “Human Authority Hardware,” devices made in the United States that require explicit human approval for sensitive actions.

Foundation also opened its KeyOS developer platform and software development kit to third‑party builders. The SDK lets developers write policies and security applications that run inside the device’s secure hardware. The company plans to launch a KeyOS app store for users by the end of the second quarter. Cake Wallet is the first external team announced as building on KeyOS, and Foundation expects additional integrations for bitcoin, identity and AI agent workflows through 2026.

Oleg Mikhalsky, a partner at Fulgur Ventures, said the firm backs Bitcoin companies that can scale into large markets and highlighted Foundation’s focus on self‑custody, open‑source software, dedicated hardware and explicit user approval. Will Wolf, a partner at Arche Capital who led Foundation’s 2022 seed round, noted his continued support for the founders’ vision of secure operating systems paired with dedicated hardware.

Zach Herbert, Foundation’s co‑founder and chief executive, framed the product around authorization for automated agents, saying, “For the agentic era it is who actually authorizes the decisions an AI agent takes on someone's behalf.” He added that such authorization should happen on separate hardware with a trusted display and an inspectable operating system so actions require explicit user approval.

Ken Carpenter, co‑founder and chief technology officer, described KeyOS as shifting the device from a passive key store to an active trust layer, and said the SDK enables policies to execute inside dedicated security hardware. Foundation positions the combination of Passport Prime and KeyOS as a way to extend hardware wallet functionality into broader authentication and identity services.