San Francisco, June 26th, 2026 — Locus today announced its integration with Visa Intelligent Commerce and Basis Theory into Pay With Locus, its agentic wallet product, enabling AI agents to make purchases with a user's existing Visa cards at participating online merchants where Visa is accepted.
Supported by Visa Intelligent Commerce, Visa's portfolio of initiatives and solutions designed to enable trusted, AI-driven commerce experiences at scale, and secured by Basis Theory's PCI DSS Level 1 compliant vault, Pay With Locus gives AI agents the ability to initiate purchase requests on a user's behalf, while helping keep the cardholder in control of each transaction.
Locus has also rolled out the same capability to Locus Founder, its AI agent product suite that builds and runs real businesses on behalf of everyday people.
Built for Control
A user can add their eligible Visa card to Pay With Locus through a secure field operated by Basis Theory. The card number then goes directly from the user's browser into Basis Theory's vault, never passing through Locus's servers. Once the card is vaulted, the cardholder completes a one-time enrollment: the issuing bank sends a one-time code to confirm the card belongs to them, and they register a passkey on their device. That passkey is required to approve each purchase. Without it, the agent cannot complete a transaction. After the card is added, the user sets a maximum charge per purchase, a monthly spending cap, and other policy controls. The agent operates within the limits set by the cardholder.
From here, every purchase follows the same flow. The agent proposes a purchase with a specific merchant, amount, and category within the limits the cardholder has pre-authorized. The cardholder is then prompted on their enrolled device with a passkey for approval that shows the merchant, amount, and which agent is requesting the charge. Once the cardholder approves with their passkey, a participating issuer can generate a single-use token using Visa capabilities, scoped to the merchant and transaction and valid for a limited period. The agent uses that token to complete the checkout. Approval is required for every charge, so if the cardholder does not approve, no card is ever issued, and nothing is charged.
"Enabling agents to initiate payments on a consumer's behalf is a major shift. It only works if every transaction still feels deliberate, permissioned, and under the buyer's control. That's the focus of Visa Intelligent Commerce: helping ensure payments remain secure and clearly approved, even as agents take on more of the work." — Tanner Riche, VP, Growth Products & Partnerships, Visa
Charges are recorded with the merchant name, the amount, and approval confirmation, reflected in the user's banking app and on the Locus platform. Permission for the agent to propose a purchase is an explicit opt-in that expires automatically every 90 days and can be turned off at any time. If this permission is not granted, the agent cannot initiate the purchase flow.
The Security Story
Visa Intelligent Commerce helps connect Locus to Visa's global network, supporting transaction authorization with cardholder approval and enabling the use of single-use tokens.
Basis Theory holds the real card data inside a PCI Level 1 compliant vault, the highest level of card security certification available, so that neither Locus nor the agent ever sees the actual card information. Purchase transactions use a one-time token tied to one merchant and one amount, helping reduce the risk of sensitive information exposure.
"PCI Level 1 vaulting is the security infrastructure that makes trusted, consumer-facing agentic commerce possible at scale. Without a hardened foundation for protecting and orchestrating sensitive payment data, autonomous AI-driven transactions simply can't operate with the level of trust, compliance, and reliability consumers and enterprises require." — James Armstead, CTO, Basis Theory
Visa Intelligent Commerce-enabled agentic payments are currently available to eligible U.S.-based users. Locus provides the user interface and agent orchestration layer, Visa supports secure transaction processing and authorization through its global payments network, and Basis Theory securely stores card credentials through vaulting.
About Locus
Locus is an AI payment infrastructure company building the rails for autonomous AI agents to transact safely on behalf of consumers and businesses, within the bounds and rules they wish to set. Pay With Locus gives AI agents access to a secure financial environment, including real spending powered by Visa, with auditability and controls on agents' spending, and various pay-per-use tools to empower agents further. Now with Visa, agents connected to Locus are able to spend on any card-compatible merchant on the internet, unlocking a new frontier of commerce possibilities within the Pay With Locus product. Agents can now make real purchases on a person's existing Visa card at any merchant online.
Locus has also built Locus Founder, a consumer AI agent application that autonomously builds and runs online businesses end-to-end, from product idea, to a live storefront, to ongoing operations. Locus Founder also supports shopping enabled by Visa Intelligent Commerce. Learn more or sign up at locusfounder.com. Founded in 2025 and headquartered in San Francisco, Locus is backed by Y Combinator and others. Learn more at paywithlocus.com.
About Basis Theory
Basis Theory is the leading independent payment vault, built to help merchants and platforms secure, control, and use sensitive payment data across systems and partners. Basis Theory sits at the forefront of agentic commerce innovation by serving as the security layer for agentic payment credentials. With PCI Level 1 compliance, SOC 2 certification, and a developer-first API, Basis Theory empowers customers to design their payment infrastructure however they choose with zero lock-in. Founded in 2020, the company is backed by Costanoa, Bessemer Venture Partners, Kindred Ventures, and others.
Visa's agentic tokens within Pay With Locus are issued pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc.