Fintech Mercury lands $300M in Sequoia-led Series C, doubles valuation to $3.5B

Digital banking startup Mercury has raised $300 million in major and secondary funding at a $3.5 billion post-money valuation, the corporate confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday.

The valuation is greater than double the startup’s valuation when it final raised capital — a $120 million Series B round in 2021 that valued the corporate at $1.62 billion post-money. 

Sequoia led the newest spherical — a Collection C — alongside present backers Coatue, CRV, Andreessen Horowitz, and new traders Spark Capital and Marathon. It’s the primary examine that Sequoia has written into Mercury for the reason that startup was based in 2017. The increase brings Mercury’s complete major and secondary funding to $500 million. The corporate declined to interrupt down how a lot of the Collection C was major and the way a lot was secondary with Mercury CEO and co-founder Immad Akhund saying the “majority” was major.

Mercury is planning on doing a broader worker tender supply at a later date, he added.

Akhund additionally instructed TechCrunch that the startup notched $500 million in income in 2024 and that it has seen 10 consecutive quarters of profitability on each EBITDA and GAAP web revenue.

The corporate counts over 200,000 firms as clients and claims it has seen 40% year-over-year buyer progress. Akhund declined to share income figures from earlier years however famous that its cost quantity elevated by 64% to $156 billion. Its clients vary in dimension, in response to Akhund, and embody tech firms equivalent to Linear, Phantom, and ElevenLabs; enterprise capital companies; e-commerce firms; and a variety of small companies.

Mercury launched its first company bank card in 2022. Final Might, Mercury instructed TechCrunch that it was layering software program onto its financial institution accounts, giving its enterprise clients the flexibility to pay payments, bill clients, and reimburse workers. These further options put the company in even more direct competition with the likes of Brex and Ramp, two rival fintechs which have for years been combating for market share in an increasingly crowded space.

Later this yr, Mercury plans to launch a consumer banking product that it first introduced in April 2024.

Mercury can be eyeing acquisitions with its new capital, Akhund mentioned. It should even be hiring. Presently, Mercury has 850 workers with plans to develop to greater than 1,000 in 2025.

The startup was embroiled in drama with associate financial institution Evolve Financial institution & Belief and embattled BaaS startup Synapse lately. On March 12, Mercury introduced that it had determined to finish its relationship with Evolve and migrate clients to its different financial institution companions. Akhund instructed TechCrunch that Mercury had stopped sending new clients to Evolve in 2022.

Mercury’s Collection C increase is believed to be the biggest fintech funding spherical introduced this yr, one which can also be seeing Klarna put together to go public. 

Reporter’s word: This text was up to date post-publication with further data and feedback from Mercury’s CEO.