Mercury, the fintech firm that provides banking services to startups, has raised $200 million in a Series D round at a $5.2 billion valuation — a 49% increase from its previous round just 14 months ago. The company is bucking a broader downturn in fintech, where many firms have seen valuations slide since the pandemic-era boom.
The round was led by TCV, a venture firm that also backs Revolut and Nubank, according to CEO Immad Akhund. Existing investors Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Coatue also participated. Mercury now counts more than 300,000 customers, including a third of early-stage startups, and has been profitable for the past four years.
The company hit $650 million in annualized revenue in the third quarter, Akhund said. It has emerged as one of a handful of fintech firms — along with larger payments startups like Ramp and Stripe — that have continued to grow after the collapse of inflated pandemic-era valuations.
AI is fueling a new wave of startups — and the company is riding it
The firm, which opens accounts for businesses at their earliest stage, has directly benefited from that trend, according to Akhund.
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“We’ve seen a lot of growth, especially recently, and a lot of that comes down to AI being a big enabler for entrepreneurship,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of people doing AI startups, but also non-AI companies where they’re using AI to build an app really easily.”
The company recently launched tools that let businesses interact with their accounts through AI agents. It plans to unveil a broader AI interface later this year that will allow customers to approve payments, send invoices and manage finances using conversational language.
The company originally gained traction among startups as a more tech-friendly alternative to traditional banks. It later benefited from the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse in 2023. Now, Mercury aims to use AI to maintain its lead in digital features for founders and small businesses.
A bank charter is in the works — but it takes years
It disclosed it received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to become a federally regulated bank. That puts it in a wave of fintech and crypto firms seeking entry to the traditional banking system dominated by established lenders.
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He said the charter may be ready for final approval in 2027, as the company builds its products and internal controls. Once it becomes a regulated bank, the firm will be able to keep more revenue, expand loan offerings, join the Zelle network for instant payments and reduce its reliance on partner banks Column and Choice Financial.
“At the scale Mercury is at, it just makes sense to be directly regulated,” the CEO said. “We tend to be much bigger than our sponsor banks. When a bank regulator goes in there, they really want to be regulating us directly.”
The move reflects a broader shift underway in fintech after the collapse of fintech middleman Synapse, which exposed weaknesses in the partnership model that powered much of the industry’s growth over the past decade. Still, he said Mercury plans to continue working with its partner banks even after obtaining its own charter, because some banking services will remain shared across institutions.
That reliance on partner banks isn’t without risk. The Synapse collapse showed how fragile those relationships can be, and regulators are increasingly scrutinizing the arrangements.
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Mercury plans to go public, not sell to a bank
Akhund said he has no plans to sell the company to a bank, as Brex did in January. He said he eventually wants Mercury to go public.
“I really want to build a strong independent brand,” he said. “I would like it to be a public company.”
Mercury’s growth has been remarkable for a firm that started as a niche player serving venture-backed startups. Its ability to sustain profitability while expanding into lending, AI tools and banking infrastructure suggests it may avoid the fate of fintechs that burned through cash chasing growth at any cost.
Still, the path to a public listing is long. The charter timeline alone stretches to 2027, and competition from incumbents and other fintechs isn’t letting up. For now, Mercury is betting that its blend of tech-forward banking and AI-driven features will keep founders coming back.
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