Mercury

History

Mercury launched to serve venture-backed startups that struggled with traditional bank onboarding. It grew by integrating with accounting tools and offering faster account opening for incorporated US companies.

Founders

Mercury was founded in 2017 by Immad Akhund, Max Tagher and Jason Zhang, who had previously worked together at Y Combinator-backed mobile-ad company Heyzap (acquired by Fyber).

Immad Akhund is co-founder and chief executive officer. Born in Pakistan and raised partly in the UK, Akhund is a serial entrepreneur who experienced slow startup banking firsthand while running earlier companies. After years of waiting for someone else to fix founder banking, he launched Mercury to give venture-backed startups fast onboarding, multi-user permissions, wires and treasury—initially via partner banks under a BaaS model.

Max Tagher (engineering; formerly Heyzap's lead engineer) and Jason Zhang (business development) co-founded Mercury with Akhund, helping build the product and go-to-market motion that made Mercury a default banking brand for U.S. technology companies.

Startup banking model

Mercury serves startups and technology companies with fast KYC, multi-user permissions, wires/ACH, cards and treasury—delivered through partner banks under BaaS arrangements. It became a default operating account for many venture-backed companies that struggled with traditional bank onboarding.

Reception

Mercury is widely praised in founder communities for UX and support, and has raised large late-stage rounds. Like other BaaS-dependent brands, it faces industry-wide scrutiny of partner-bank risk and evolving U.S. regulatory expectations for fintech–bank partnerships.

Products

Core products include business checking, multi-user permissions, expense cards, wires and ACH, and cash-management / treasury options. Banking services are provided by partner banks under BaaS arrangements.