Mercury has raised $200 million in Series D funding at a $5.2 billion valuation as it pursues a national bank charter and expands its AI-powered financial tools for entrepreneurs. The digital banking platform has been profitable for four consecutive years and now serves more than 300,000 customers across startups, e-commerce, professional services, and other digitally native businesses.
In an interview with PYMNTS, Co-Founder and CEO Immad Akhund said Mercury saw a 2.5x increase in applications in the first quarter compared with the same period last year. He tied that growth to a broader shift in entrepreneurship, as AI lowers the cost and time required to turn ideas into companies.
Mercury also recently received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Mercury Bank, N.A. The move would give the company a more direct relationship with regulators and reduce its reliance on banking-as-a-service structures that have faced more scrutiny since the collapse of Synapse.
Akhund said the charter effort is about scale and expanded capabilities, not dissatisfaction with bank partners. Mercury expects a national bank charter to support broader lending products, deeper payments infrastructure, and direct access to networks such as Zelle.
The company is also building more AI into its financial software. Mercury Insights is designed to provide automated financial analysis, while Mercury Command will use a natural-language interface to help customers complete multi-step financial workflows. For now, Mercury requires users to approve AI-proposed financial actions before they are carried out.
Akhund said Mercury sees banking as a software problem, not just a deposit product. “How do we build all of this financial software to help your business run?” he told PYMNTS. “It’s not just the checking and savings account.”
