The company’s tagline says it all: “Your bank account should do more than hold your money. Now it can.” Mercury aims at providing professional business banking services that incorporate a vast array of possibilities. It enables companies to manage their finances at the level of a comfortable dashboard, having it all at managers’ fingertips. The idea targets startups but it can be useful to all that need quick and seamless banking services.
The origin story – who built the company?
The American fintech Mercury was founded by Immad Akhund, Max Tagher, and Jason Zhang. They all had previously worked together at mobile ad network Heyzap which was acquired by Fyber in 2015 for $45 million.
In this startup, our founders were frustrated by constraints on the cash flow, which inhibited growth. After Heyzap was sold, Akhund became an investor in early-stage startups. He discovered the same banking challenges he had faced while running startups before Mercury. The long application process, untailored services, hidden fees, in-person branch visits, and frustrating user interface (UI) made him crack. He decided to do something and solve the problem.
Akhund was inspired by the growth of challenger banks across Europe, even though they mostly target the B2C market. He observed that although business needs had evolved, legacy banks were not able to evolve with them. The technology-first mindset simply wasn’t there. After meetings with fintech experts and founders of neobanks, the Mercury was born in 2019.
In the first week, the company witnessed a customer transferring $1 million into their Mercury account. The company grew dynamically, reaching 1,500 signups in its first week after launch. With a stable growth of 40% month-over-month in the ensuing months, the company began to be a player in the startup banking market.
Now, after a few years of serving B2B customers, the company is ready to launch a consumer banking product as well. But, unlike many neobanks who serve unbanked, Mercury wants to focus on power users who need features like wire transfers or support for multiple users, features that Mercury’s service offers right now. With that, Mercury hopes to convert many of its business clients into customers.
Crossing over, or rather expanding into B2C as well, isn’t that easy though. Each market has differing regulations and compliance issues. For example: risk management for personal banking is about assessing the individual’s financial stability. That can be less predictable compared to business accounts.
Plus, since Mercury is technically not a bank, there are other complexities. Additional layers of regulation apply to banking services. This includes everything from anti-money laundering (AML) protocols to meeting capital requirements.
The business model and revenue streams
Although it’s technically not a bank, it is a financial technology company. It has partnerships with regional banking institutions to hold customers’ deposits but it’s unable to lend against them. Through partnerships with North Dakota-based Choice Bank and Tennessee-based Evolve Bank and Trust, Mercury allows customers to have access to giants, like Goldman Sachs and Capital One.
In their own words, the founders wanted to create a banking account powerful enough to eliminate obstacles and make it feel more like a catalyst for startups. That’s why the company offers access to treasury services, paying bills, invoicing, corporate credit cards, and accounting automation functions. All these features aim to be constantly available and seamlessly integrated into daily business processes of companies at their early stage of development. Accessible and convenient. Not to mention complementary to each other.
Also, the fintech offers FDIC-insured accounts, virtual & physical debit cards, currency exchange, and domestic and international wires. Mercury provides an API, custom team management, and integrations with tools like Quickbooks and Stripe.
Interestingly, the company holds an e-magazine for startup owners called Meridian. There, businessmen can read about business success stories, art, and even cultural essays. The magazine also provides profiles of successful entrepreneurs to get inspired from. If you’re into this, you can check the Interviews section on our blog. It’s perfect for fintech enthusiasts.
All this leads to substantial earnings. The company claims that revenue grew by 180% in 2023 while its customer base had grown by 60% and transaction volume by 90%, reaching $95 billion as the beginning of this year.
Summary
Mercury is an interesting example of a company crossing over to a different market segment, covering the needs of different audiences. You can cross too. With Code & Pepper, you can create a thriving fintech business. We have over 17 years of experience in the matter.
Our talent identification methodology had led us to hire only the top 1.6%of software engineering talents. This is a recipe for a quick and seamless fintech software creation. AI tools mastery translates to a stable pipeline of projects created for our customers. We know how it’s done. Partner with us, learn for yourself.
