Mercury: Modern Banking* Built for the Modern Entrepreneur

We believe entrepreneurs are the backbone of the American economy, and yet for decades the financial infrastructure that serves them has looked nothing like the software these same businesses rely on for other parts of their operations. Legacy banks still operate on antiquated systems with clunky interfaces, opaque fees, onboarding processes that take weeks, and no unified view of a business's inflows and outflows. To fill the gaps, founders have had to stitch together a patchwork of disconnected point solutions across banking, accounting, payroll, expense management, bill pay, and invoicing: a setup that creates more friction the faster and larger a business grows.

Advances in AI are enabling a new generation of founders who need a banking platform that keeps pace with the innovations they are building. That is why we are excited to announce our investment in Mercury, the fintech company that is serving over 300K ambitious US-based businesses.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco, Mercury was born out of the firsthand frustration of its co-founders, Immad Akhund, Jason Zhang, and Max Tagher, all of whom experienced the pain of legacy business banking while running their own startups. Their original insight was simple: when something changes in your business, the tools you use to manage your money should help you understand what is happening and let you act immediately. They didn't see that standard anywhere in incumbent business banking.

Mercury began with a digitally native checking and savings product that dramatically improved the core banking experience: fully digital onboarding in one to two days versus weeks at incumbents; a modern, intuitive interface; transparent pricing with no hidden fees; and superior customer service. The result is a high NPS (75 compared to the banking industry average of 34) and a largely organic, word-of-mouth referral engine.[^1]

Mercury has since expanded the platform to include corporate cards, expense management, bill pay, invoicing, treasury management, and venture lending, with native payroll recently added via the acquisition of Central. Mercury builds these workflows natively around the bank account rather than bolting them on, creating a single source of truth for cash and business logic that seeks to remove the reconciliation overhead of managing disconnected systems. That architectural choice is why customers who arrive for the checking account tend to adopt additional products over time, deepening the relationship in a way point solutions have had difficulty replicating.

Mercury also recently received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Mercury Bank, N.A. As a fully chartered national bank, Mercury Bank, N.A. intends to provide customers with capabilities they can't access today, including access to Zelle, an expanded suite of lending products, and deeper payment infrastructure built and controlled by Mercury.

Partnering with Mercury

At TCV, we have a long history of partnering with companies we believe to be category-defining fintech platforms around the world. Mercury fits our global thesis on digital banking and fintech across both B2C and B2B, alongside companies like Revolut, Nubank, Pennylane, LayerX, Qonto, Allica Bank, Wealthsimple, and Trade Republic. We also believe it complements our full-potential SaaS thesis through investments such as Toast, LegalZoom, Clio, and Jane. In each case, we have seen digital-first platforms address gaps left by incumbents and build durable businesses by delivering a fundamentally better customer experience.

We are thrilled to partner with Immad and the entire Mercury team as they continue to build a financial operating system for ambitious businesses and, increasingly, for builders who seek modern tools to manage their money. We believe Mercury has the potential to become the de facto platform for business financial operations, and we look forward to supporting the company on the journey ahead.

About Mercury: Mercury is radically different banking* for entrepreneurs, engineered from the ground up to hold, move, and help you truly understand your money like never before. Everything you need is built in: cards, invoicing, bill pay, spend management, real-time insights, intelligent categorization. And because it all lives in one place, it gets smarter the more you use it, surfacing what you need, when you need it, in ways a patchwork of tools never could. To join the more than 300K entrepreneurs who trust Mercury, visit mercury.com.

[^1]: Per Mercury's internal survey data and studies.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of TCMI, Inc. or its affiliates ("TCV"). Such statements have not been independently verified and are subject to change. This blog post contains forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. TCV disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes. This blog post is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase an interest in any private fund managed or sponsored by TCV or any of the securities of any company discussed. The investment described above may not be representative of all investments made by the TCV Funds and is not necessarily representative of any future investments that may be made by the TCV Funds. No assumption should be made that the investment identified was or will be profitable. For a complete list of TCV investments, please visit www.tcv.com/all-companies. For additional important disclaimers regarding this blog post, please see "Informational Purposes Only" in the Terms of Use for TCV's website, available at www.tcv.com/terms-of-use. *Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC. The IO Card is issued by Patriot Bank, N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Mastercard International Incorporated.