San Francisco-based digital bank, Mercury which describes itself as a bank for startups, announced last week that it’s refilled its coffers to fuel rapid future growth.
Launched in April, the online bank promised full-stack bank accounts to help startups scale. With features like cashflow analytics, instant runway estimates, and programmatic payments, the $20 million of new funding will be used to continue developing its product while building up a customer base that hit 1500 in its first week, with a 40% monthly growth rate since.
“While we knew building the bank for startups would take some capital, we didn’t count on raising so quickly after our launch in April,” CEO Immad Akhund wrote in a blog post.
“[We] were able to do so largely because of the genuine enthusiasm and groundswell of support from the community,”
The Series A funding was led by Charles River Ventures (CRV), alongside existing investor Andreessen Horowitz, Will Smith’s Dreamers Fund and Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures. In fact, there were nearly 40 firms and individuals contributing including CEO of Eventbrite Kevin Hartz, co-founder of Behance Scott Belsky, CEO of Flexport Ryan Petersen, and Andre Iguodala of the Memphis Grizzlies. The bank's total list of backers now exceeds 100 supporters including the founder of Silicon Valley Bank Roger Smith, Bill Clerico of WePay, and AngelList CEO Naval Ravikant.
It was just earlier this year that Mercury completed its seed funding round with $6 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company now has a valuation of $100 million.
For startups seeking a bank, Mercury isn't the only option but there is a range of features that make it an attractive option.
In addition to the standard checking and savings accounts, the bank offers modern dashboards, easy interfaces, and an online sign-up that Mercury says only takes 10 minutes to go through. Accounts are generally ready to use within 24-hours, a surefire feature for budding startups.
“Raising this Series A will help us push deeper into the vision we have for what the first tech bank in the US should look like,” wrote Akhund. “We’ll be putting the money into making a product that will foundationally make it easier for your company to succeed.”
