AI agents, an autonomous bot designed to act on behalf of users, are quickly moving from science fiction to everyday reality. However, while the technologies behind these AI agents have matured rapidly, the infrastructure that connects them to digital services remains fragmented.
That gap is exactly what Paris and San Francisco-based startup Alpic aims to address, closing a $6 million seed round led by Parttech and a consortium of investors with deep connections to AI and cloud infrastructure.
“The real potential of agents lies in their ability to interact with the digital world around them. To do this, they need infrastructure built from the ground up for agents and something that has not been modified for them.”
This investment will facilitate the development of Alpic's platform. Alpic's platform has already counted dozens of MCP server deployments with early customers and is taking part in the public beta. Timing reflects the momentum of the wider market. As AI agents increasingly handle tasks from booking flights to managing CRM data, businesses need a scalable and reliable infrastructure to support this new user layer.
The story behind Alpic
Founded by Pierre-Louis Theron (CEO), Nikolay Rodionov (COO), Frédéric Barthelet (CTO), Charles Sonigo (CPO), and Erica Beavers (CMO), the team combines deep expertise in infrastructure, cloud computing, AI and media technology. This experienced core has a proven track record from previous venture, Streamroot, through acquisition and leadership roles in the media and crowdsectors.
“Authentication, user experience, payments, and developer workflows look completely different when users are AI agents. We are beginning to understand how much the internet is changing. Alpic's mission is to provide an infrastructure that makes these connections seamless,” added Theron.
Looking back at the motivation behind the startup, Theron shares tfn“We kept seeing the same pattern in early agent projects, which included fragile demonstrations that barely worked in production, and fragile integrations. The team was slowly wired the model to a human interface that was fragile and difficult to protect.
Alpic has launched to make agent access safe, measurable and easier to operate on a large scale. Previous experience in building and operating large-scale video delivery infrastructures has helped us identify this emerging need and the inefficiency of current approaches. ”
From a woman's perspective in technology, Beavers said, “Personally, progress is realistic, but bias is still superficial about technical reliability. What made the biggest difference for me is learning that confidence from others begins with confidence in myself.
The world's first cloud platform exclusively for MCP
Alpic is building the world's first cloud platform built for Model Context Protocol (MCP), a standard open traction force among leading AI players, to enable secure and direct communication between AI agents and external services.
Theron explains tfn“ALPIC is the first full-service cloud platform built specifically for the Model Context Protocol. It provides developers with everything they need to make service agents accessible in one location (hosting, security, analytics, and operations) without the need for new frameworks or custom plumbing.”
He said, “What sets us apart is the developer experience. It abstracts deployment and infrastructure so that teams can spin up their MCP servers in minutes and focus on building useful tools.
Startup delivery allows businesses and developers to incorporate security frameworks and analytics tailored to agent interactions, allowing them to bypass vulnerable and inefficient workarounds in AI and quickly deploy what they have to “navigate” through human-centric interfaces.
Alpic's technology is differentiated by focusing on ease of operation and security as well as connectivity, providing the capabilities of one-click deployment, fine-tuned authentication models, and observability.
“We're looking forward to seeing you in the future,” said Boris Golden, Parttech's general partner.
The startup approach foresees a future in which AI agents regularly interface directly with the digital world and replace many traditional user interfaces.
