The round was led by Lightspeed in Series A funding for their platform, which has created a fluid payment system benefiting both AI companies and content creators. TollBit allows AI agents and applications to pay websites directly to use their content or data. TollBit empowers publishers and content owners to monitor AI bot traffic and put up a tollbooth to monetize usage. The platform makes it easy for publishers to onboard multiple AI and LLM partners in real-time. The first clients have begun to use the system, which will benefit content creators and make AI more useful and up-to-date. AI news reader app, Particle, is now paying publishers through TollBit.

Joslin and Panigrahi welcome the support of two major new investors, Lightspeed and Section 32, both venture capital firms that focus on the growth of new technologies. Additional investments are from industry veterans Jeff Dean and Manuel Bronstein.

TollBit offers AI agents and applications an easy and compliant way to compensate websites directly for content. The platform seeks to address the new economics of content creation in the AI era by reducing the legal uncertainties of scraping and protecting the health of the entire content ecosystem.