SerenAI Joins MongoDB for Startups to Enable Pay-Per-Call Monetization for AI Agent Data Access

Partnership enables MongoDB customers to monetize AI agent calls through micropayments—addressing the "once in a lifetime" AI inflection point

San Francisco, CA — December 2025 — SerenAI, the API monetization infrastructure for AI agents, today announced it has joined the MongoDB for Startups program. The partnership enables MongoDB customers to monetize AI agent access to their databases through pay-per-call micropayments—without changing their existing infrastructure.

The announcement comes as MongoDB's new CEO CJ Desai identifies AI as a "once in a lifetime" opportunity, noting that "AI workloads are rewiring database decisions" and "rearchitecture is happening right now." SerenAI addresses a critical gap in this new architecture: while MongoDB provides the ideal data layer for AI workloads, there's been no way to meter, bill, and collect payments from AI agents accessing that data.

The Problem: Databases Can't Bill AI Agents

As AI agents proliferate—creating 80% of new database workloads according to industry data—companies face a new challenge: their databases have no back-end infrastructure to monetize this demand. Traditional subscription models don't work for AI agents with variable, unpredictable query patterns.

"MongoDB's architecture exists for AI workloads, as CJ Desai has said," noted Taariq Lewis, CEO of SerenAI. "But there's been a missing piece: how do you actually monetize AI agent access? You can't send an invoice to a Claude agent. SerenAI provides the monetization layer that lets MongoDB customers capture revenue from every AI agent query."

The Solution: Pay-Per-Call for AI Agents

SerenAI adds x402 micropayment infrastructure to any database or API, enabling:

• Per-call pricing: Charge $0.0001 to $0.01 per call instead of monthly subscriptions
• Agent identity: Know Your Agent (KYA) profiles for every AI agent accessing your data
• Automated billing: USDC micropayments with instant settlement on Base
• Zero migration: Works with existing MongoDB deployments—no data movement required

For MongoDB customers with valuable datasets—financial data, market intelligence, enterprise records—SerenAI transforms their database into a revenue-generating asset for the AI economy.

Two Paths to Monetization

For API Companies: Add SerenAI's payment layer to existing APIs. Developers pay per call through any MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Claude Code). You keep 100% of revenue.

For Database Owners: Replicate data to SerenAI's x402 Gateway with built-in metering, billing, and settlement. Monetize AI agent demand without building payment infrastructure.

Market Validation

SerenAI's marketplace is already live with paying publishers:

• U.S. Department of the Treasury: Federal financial data including public debt, revenue, spending, and interest rates
• Nasdaq Data Link: Financial market data across all Nasdaq sources
• Google Trends: Real-time search trends with regional breakdowns and related topics
• Firecrawl: AI-powered web scraping API that turns websites into LLM-ready data

Publishers set their own prices (typically $0.0001 to $0.01 per call) and keep 100% of revenue during the growth phase.

"The AI rearchitecture CJ Desai describes isn't just about where data lives—it's about how data is accessed and paid for," added Lewis. "MongoDB is becoming the default data layer for AI. SerenAI is becoming the default monetization layer."

About SerenAI

SerenAI is pay-per-call billing infrastructure for API companies and database owners. We help data providers add micropayment billing for AI agents—no code changes required. Publishers keep 100% of revenue during our growth phase. Learn more at serendb.com.

About MongoDB for Startups

MongoDB for Startups supports early-stage companies with credits, technical guidance, and go-to-market resources to build and scale on MongoDB's developer data platform. The program is part of MongoDB's commitment to powering the next generation of AI-native applications.

Media Contact Taariq Lewis CEO, SerenAI press [ at ] serendb.com

Note: Quotes from CJ Desai sourced from CNBC interview (December 1, 2025) and UBS Global Technology and AI Conference (December 3, 2025).