Mercury has raised $200 million at a $5.2 billion valuation, giving the San Francisco fintech fresh capital as it tries to become the default banking platform for a new wave of AI-native startups.

The company announced the Series D round Wednesday, saying it was led by TCV and included participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, CRV, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Spark Capital. Mercury said the new financing brings its total primary and secondary funding to approximately $700 million since the company was founded in 2017.

The valuation is a notable step up for Mercury, which was valued at $3.5 billion after a $300 million Series C announced in 2025, according to Crunchbase News. The new round comes at a time when venture funding remains heavily influenced by artificial intelligence, with investors backing not only AI model developers and infrastructure companies but also businesses that expect to serve the operational needs of AI startups.

Mercury’s central pitch is that the AI boom is accelerating company formation. Co-founder and Chief Executive Immad Akhund said in the company’s announcement that AI is reducing the friction between an idea and a company, creating what Mercury sees as a larger market for startup-focused financial tools. The company said it saw a 2.5-fold increase in applications in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Mercury also pointed to U.S. Census Bureau data showing an 18% year-over-year increase in new U.S. business applications in the first quarter of 2026. The company framed that broader formation trend as evidence that AI tools are helping more founders move from concept to launch faster, although not every new business application is an AI company or venture-backed startup.

Founded by Akhund, Jason Zhang and Max Tagher, Mercury originally built its brand around startup banking, offering accounts and financial software through partner banks rather than operating as a bank itself. Its products include business banking, cards, bill pay, invoicing, treasury-related tools and financial workflows aimed at founders and finance teams. The company says more than 300,000 customers now use Mercury, including one in three U.S. startups.

The customer base cited by Mercury includes AI and developer-focused companies such as Supabase, ElevenLabs, Lovable, Linear, Phantom and Tempo. The company is also trying to show that its market is broader than venture-backed software: it said more than 73% of new customers now come from outside the AI and tech startup category, including ecommerce companies, professional services firms and creators.

The funding round lands shortly after a regulatory milestone that could reshape Mercury’s operating model. In April, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted conditional approval for a charter application to establish Mercury Bank, National Association, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The OCC decision described Mercury Technologies as the proposed bank’s owner and said the bank would seek to expand financial service offerings to current clients and attract small and midsize business and consumer customers.

That approval is not the same as a final bank launch. The OCC’s corporate decision said the proposed bank must satisfy additional requirements before final charter approval, while Reuters reported that deposit insurance and Federal Reserve-related approvals remain part of the process. For Mercury, a completed charter path could eventually allow it to offer services more directly and reduce reliance on partner-bank infrastructure.

Mercury and outside reports have pointed to Zelle integration as one example of a product capability that could become easier with a bank charter. More broadly, owning more of the regulated banking stack could give Mercury greater control over payments, lending, deposits and compliance operations, though it would also subject the company to direct federal banking supervision and a more complex risk-management regime.

The charter effort is especially relevant after the 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which pushed many startups to rethink how they manage deposits and diversify banking relationships. Mercury was among the fintech platforms that benefited from founders seeking alternatives or backup accounts during that period. Its current challenge is to turn that crisis-era visibility into a durable banking relationship as startups mature and traditional banks compete for the same customers.

The company says it has already reached significant scale. Mercury reported $650 million in annualized revenue as of the third quarter of 2025 and said it has delivered four consecutive years of profitability on both GAAP net income and EBITDA bases. Those figures make Mercury unusual among late-stage fintech startups, many of which have faced tighter funding markets, margin pressure and higher scrutiny of sponsor-bank arrangements in recent years.

For Silicon Valley, the new funding round reflects a broader shift in where AI-related value is being captured. The largest checks still flow to foundation-model developers, chipmakers, data-center infrastructure providers and enterprise AI platforms. But companies like Mercury are betting that a surge in AI-enabled company creation will also create demand for adjacent systems: banking, payroll, compliance, spend management, accounting and investor reporting.

That opportunity is competitive. Brex, Ramp, traditional banks and other fintech platforms all sell overlapping tools to startups and small businesses. Incumbent banks also retain advantages in balance-sheet depth, regulatory experience, international coverage and long-standing relationships with later-stage companies. Mercury’s argument is that faster-moving founders want a financial platform built around software workflows rather than legacy bank interfaces.

TCV’s investment signals that at least some growth investors still see room for large outcomes in fintech, particularly where the business is tied to AI-driven entrepreneurship rather than consumer banking alone. In the announcement, TCV General Partner Neil Tolaney said the next generation of entrepreneurs will be AI native and will need a banking partner that helps them run finances at the pace AI is setting.

The round does not by itself prove that the AI startup formation boom will continue at its current pace. Venture markets remain sensitive to interest rates, exit conditions and the revenue durability of AI companies built on third-party models. If AI startups consolidate around a smaller number of large winners, or if many fail to convert rapid experimentation into paying customers, platforms serving them could see growth moderate.

For now, Mercury is using the moment to deepen its claim on the startup-finance layer of the AI economy. With a higher valuation, a new lead investor and a conditional path toward a national bank charter, the company is trying to move from a popular founder banking platform to a broader financial operating system for startups. Its next test will be whether it can sustain growth while navigating the regulatory burden and competitive intensity that come with becoming more bank-like.