Mercury is a financial technology company that provides customers with banking services. The company is not a bank, but works with banking service providers to provide bank accounts and other financial services. The company was founded in 2017 in San Francisco, California.
History
Mercury was founded in 2017 by Immad Akhund, Max Tagher, and Jason Zhang. Mercury's business bank launched in 2019. In March 2022, the company began offering venture debt services to its customers. In September 2022, the company launched a corporate charge card. In March 2023, Fast Company named Mercury one of the ten most innovative companies in finance. The company is also on Forbes' 2023 Fintech 50 list for private companies. The company reportedly gained a significant number of new customers and deposits in the wake of the March 2023 Silicon Valley Bank failure.
Business
Mercury offers banking services to customers, which are primarily early stage startups. The company is not a chartered bank, and therefore can't 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 and Tennessee-based Evolve Bank and Trust, which have a network of regional banks. This network gives customers access to a sweep network of other banks such as Goldman Sachs and Capital One. 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.