Mercury Technologies
| Industry | Financial technology |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2017[1] |
| Founders | Immad Akhund Max Tagher Jason Zhang[2] |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California , |
Key people | Immad Akhund (CEO) Max Tagher (CTO) Jason Zhang (COO)[2] |
| Products | Banking services |
Number of employees | 800[3] (2024) |
| Website | mercury |
Mercury Technologies Inc., commonly known as simply Mercury, is an American fintech company that provides banking services to start-up companies and small businesses. The company is not a bank, but works with banking service providers to provide bank accounts and other financial services.[4] The company was founded in 2017 in San Francisco, California.[1]
History
Mercury was founded in 2017 by Immad Akhund, Max Tagher, and Jason Zhang.[1] Mercury's business bank accounts launched in 2019.[1] In March 2022, the company began offering venture debt services to its customers.[5] In September 2022, the company launched a corporate charge card.[1]
The company reportedly gained a significant number of new customers and deposits in the wake of the March 2023 Silicon Valley Bank failure.[6]
In April 2024, Mercury launched personal banking for consumers.[7] In May 2024, Mercury launched financial software to help businesses pay bills, send invoices and reimburse employees.[8]
In June 2024, one of Mercury's partner banks, Evolve Bank & Trust, suffered a major data breach that included account numbers and deposit balances for Mercury accounts.[9] The ransomware group LockBit took credit for the attack.[10] In October 2024, Mercury added Plaid founder William Hockey's bank Column as a new partner bank.[11]
In March 2025, Mercury announced it planned to cut ties with Evolve Bank & Trust, and migrate customers to one of its other partner banks, Column N.A. and Choice Financial Group, by the end of 2025.[11]
In March 2025, Mercury raised $300 million in its Series C round, doubling its valuation to $3.5 billion from its 2021 Series B funding round.[12] The Series C was led by Sequoia Capital and new including Spark Capital and Marathon, as well as returning investors Coatue, CRV and Andreessen Horowitz.[3] In 2024, Mercury had $500 million revenue, and had $156 billion in payment volume.[13] Mercury added Timothy Mayopoulos, the FDIC appointed interim head of Silicon Valley Bank, to its board of directors.[14]
Business
Mercury offers banking services to customers, primarily startups.[15]
The company is not a chartered bank, and is therefore unable to lend against deposits. Instead, it partners with regional bank networks to hold customer's deposits. Its main bank partners are North Dakota-based Choice Bank, which has a network of regional banks, and California-based Column.[11][16] This network gives customers access to a sweep network of other banks such as Goldman Sachs and Capital One.[4] Customer deposits of up to $5 million can be spread out across multiple accounts that are each under the FDIC's $250,000 insurance limit.[16]
The company provides a corporate credit card called Mercury IO.[17][18]
The company also operates Mercury Raise, a service connecting customers with investors.[19]
References
- ^ a b c d e Mason, Emily (September 12, 2022). "Mercury Launches Corporate Charge Card, Entering Crowded Fintech Field That Includes Brex And Ramp". Forbes. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
- ^ a b Azevedo, Mary Ann (July 7, 2023). "SVB's collapse drove 26K customers to Mercury in 4 months". Techcrunch. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
- ^ a b Donaldson, Ali (March 28, 2025). "How Mercury Scored a $3.5 Billion Valuation in 8 Years".
- ^ a b Azevedo, Mary Ann (March 13, 2023). "Mercury expands FDIC insurance up to $3M through new Vault product". Techcrunch. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
- ^ Loizos, Connie (March 15, 2022). "Startup banking service Mercury jumps into debt lending to take on Silicon Valley Bank". Techcrunch. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
- ^ Kauflin, Jeff (March 15, 2023). "Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Produces An Early Winner: Digital Banks". Forbes. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
- ^ Becker, Sam (April 17, 2024). "Startup-focused neobank Mercury launches personal banking, targeting the founder class".
- ^ Azevedo, Mary Ann (May 7, 2024). "Startup neobank Mercury is taking on Brex and Ramp with new bill pay, spend management software".
- ^ "Arkansas-based Evolve Bank confirms cyber attack and data breach". Reuters. 2024-06-26. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
- ^ Xie, Teresa; Gorrivan, Charles (2024-06-26). "Evolve Bank & Trust Confirms Data Was Stolen in Cyber Attack". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
- ^ a b c "Fintech Neobank Mercury Severs Its Relationship With Evolve Bank". March 12, 2025 – via www.bloomberg.com.
- ^ "Fintech Mercury lands $300M in Sequoia-led Series C, doubles valuation to $3.5B". 26 March 2025.
- ^ Azevedo, Mary Ann (March 26, 2025). "Fintech Mercury lands $300M in Sequoia-led Series C, doubles valuation to $3.5B".
- ^ "Exclusive: Fintech Banking Startup Mercury Raises $300 Million at a $3.5 Billion Valuation". WSJ.
- ^ Leffert, Catherine (March 23, 2023). "Mercury and Brex acquired thousands of ex-SVB clients. Will they stay?". American Banker. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
- ^ a b Brewster, Lucy (May 11, 2023). "Mercury has attracted depositors after SVB fell. But can it keep them". Fortune. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
- ^ Mason, Emily. "Mercury Launches Corporate Charge Card, Entering Crowded Fintech Field That Includes Brex And Ramp". Forbes.
- ^ PYMNTS (2024-10-09). "Mercury Gets $100 Million Credit Warehouse for Corporate Card Business". PYMNTS.com. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
- ^ Clifford, Catherine (May 16, 2021). "How this 28-year-old is giving unbanked families in Mexico access to solar hot water heaters, washing machines, refrigerators". CNBC.