Bird raises $450M and opens infrastructure to AI agents

Dutch technology company Bird has raised $450 million in debt financing. At the same time, the company is opening up its communications infrastructure to AI agents, software systems that can independently perform tasks, make decisions and take actions on behalf of a user. The AI agents can then independently send messages, make phone calls and manage emails. 

With the new funding, Bird plans to expand further, including in the United States. The company positions its infrastructure as a communications layer for what it calls the “agent economy”: an economy in which AI agents independently perform tasks on behalf of businesses and consumers.

“This is also my way of pushing back against something you increasingly see in Europe today: tech companies being swallowed up by large American corporations,” Bird CEO and founder Robert Vis told De Telegraaf.

AI agents gain access to communications

Bird is also launching a new platform called Agentic Harness. It allows AI agents to directly use the company’s communications infrastructure.

The agents can send and follow up on messages via WhatsApp, make phone calls, respond to customers, and send and manage emails. They can also manage their own eSIM phone plan through Bird.

Bird is focusing not only on communications themselves. According to the company, AI agents can also control the systems and operational processes behind these interactions, tasks that previously often required developers or manual intervention.

Through a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, and Cursor can connect to Bird. The company also offers a command-line interface that allows agents to access the infrastructure from a terminal.

About the financing round

The financing round consists of a $400 million term loan and a $50 million credit facility. J.P. Morgan is leading the financing, together with Capital One, Citi and other lenders.

According to Bird, the new financing does not mean the company is going public or being acquired. The company remains independent and will use the debt financing, among other things, to provide liquidity to existing shareholders, including current and former employees.