Every few years, a new layer of business infrastructure gets rebuilt from scratch.

Stripe replaced legacy payment processors. Gusto replaced bloated payroll software. Deel replaced convoluted global hiring.

Each advance, the best solution doesn’t just win because it is cheaper. It wins because it is designed for the way companies actually work, by people who have lived the problem firsthand.

We believe the same shift is happening to business banking today, and that the best solution isn't at a startup burning toward profitability. It's a profitable, growing startup with 300,000 customers, including one in three U.S. startups*, that just received conditional approval from the OCC to charter its own national bank.

Today, we're talking about:

The year is 2013, and Immad Akhund is fighting the battle many founders quietly lose time to: their bank.

Heyzap, his mobile advertising startup, was growing fast. And yet every month, the same ritual. Someone logging into a clunky portal to manually check what had come in. PDF forms scattered across email inboxes that looked like they were designed in 1997. When Heyzap raised its first million-dollar round, the bank flagged the account. An incoming wire from a reputable venture firm was, apparently, suspicious activity.

Immad sold Heyzap in 2016 for $45 million. Then he started writing angel checks and heard the same story from almost every company he backed: banking was broken for ambitious entrepreneurs.

He spent the next year mapping what it would take to fix it. In 2017, he co-founded Mercury with Jason Zhang and Max Tagher.

The original product was simple in concept: a business account built for the way founders actually work. Fast to open. Real-time visibility into every dollar. As little friction as possible between a founder and their money. And one day, a complete financial operating system — checking, savings, cards, bill pay, invoicing, expense management, treasury, payroll — all in one place.

Eight years in, we believe their ambition is closer to complete than anyone expected.

In March 2023, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed. It was the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Overnight, tens of thousands of companies needed a new home for their money, and they needed it immediately.

Mercury absorbed $2 billion in new deposits in five days. It has retained 95% of those customers through today.

That moment proved something no pitch deck could. Founders didn't choose Mercury because they had no other options — plenty of banks were accepting deposits that week. They chose Mercury because it was the product they had wanted all along.

Today, Mercury is announcing a $200 million Series D at a $5.2 billion valuation, led by TCV, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, CRV, and Sapphire Ventures.

The fundamentals behind the raise:

The profitability line is worth pausing on. Many fintech companies at Mercury's scale and growth rate are still burning cash, betting the unit economics will eventually work. According to Mercury, they have delivered four straight years of GAAP profit through interest rate cycles, a competitive market, and an industry crisis.

USVC's investment thesis starts with founders. We believe the best businesses are often indistinguishable from mediocre ones on paper at the early stages. What separates them, in our view, is who is building, and whether that person understands the problem deeply enough to keep solving it long after the initial insight has stopped feeling exciting.

Immad has been building Mercury for eight years. He lived the problem at Heyzap. He watched it repeat at every company he backed as an angel. He didn't just start Mercury because he saw a market opportunity. He started it because he had run out of patience waiting for someone else to fix something he knew was broken.

Three more reasons the investment made sense:

Profitability changes what you're underwriting. Most growth-stage fintech investments ask you to believe the unit economics will eventually work. That’s not the case with Mercury. Four consecutive years of GAAP profitability shifts the investment question entirely to how large it can become.

The charter, if approved, would be a structural inflection. On April 27, 2026, Mercury received conditional approval from the OCC to establish Mercury Bank, N.A. as a federally chartered national bank. Final FDIC and Federal Reserve approvals remain pending, and neither the timing nor the outcome is guaranteed. But if the charter is fully approved, Mercury could hold customer deposits directly, eliminating the revenue-sharing arrangement with partner banks it runs today. That could open up wider margins, expanded product capabilities, and a lending business it can't fully operate now. The Mercury that exists today is a strong, profitable business. Mercury once it has a fully approved charter is structurally different.

The market arrived larger than anyone modeled. Mercury set out to bank startups. In 2025, 73% of new customers came from outside the AI and tech category, namely e-commerce businesses, professional services firms, and small businesses across the economy. Mercury didn't change to capture them. The product was simply good enough that it worked for customers it was never specifically designed for. And that market is about to get larger: new U.S. business applications rose 18% in Q1 2026 year over year. Mercury is well positioned for the largest wave of new business creation in a generation.

USVC participated in Mercury's Series D with a $5 million investment.

The investment structure is worth understanding clearly.

This is a direct position on Mercury's cap table with no underlying management fees, no carried interest. When Mercury creates value through this investment, it flows to USVC without another layer of costs in between.

To be precise about what you own: you do not hold Mercury shares directly. You own USVC shares — a regulated fund that holds Mercury as one investment alongside private companies and emerging managers. What that gives you is economic exposure in our portfolio to a profitable, high-growth company with a national bank charter pending.

The investors who have historically accessed a primary position in a round like this are endowments, family offices, and large venture funds writing eight-figure checks. By the time a business this well-built reaches public markets, the appreciation that happened while it was still private is already behind you.

That's the access USVC exists to provide.

Read the full announcement →

Private markets have historically rewarded patient capital. The investors who've built real positions in venture didn't find the perfect moment. They started early and stayed long.

USVC is how you build that position, starting with as little as $500.

*Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC. Market share calculation based on US-based companies that received an angel, pre-seed, seed, or Series A investment reported on Crunchbase in the most recent year.

Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, sales charges and expenses of USVC before investing. USVC's prospectus contains this and other information and may be obtained at http://usvc.com/prospectus or by calling +1 (844) 988-1720. Read the prospectus carefully before investing.

Information regarding Mercury, including operating metrics and business developments, is based on information provided by Mercury or other third-party sources believed reliable, has not been independently verified by USVC, is presented as of the dates indicated, and may have changed. Mercury operating metrics are historical company-level metrics and are not performance of USVC, are not indicative of USVC’s future returns, and should not be relied upon as guarantees of future results. Mercury has received conditional approval from the U.S. Treasury to establish Mercury Bank, N.A., but final FDIC and Federal Reserve approvals remain pending, and there can be no assurance that final approvals will be obtained, that approvals will be obtained on expected terms or timing, or that the anticipated business, margin, product, or strategic benefits of a bank charter will be realized. Mercury is one investment in USVC’s portfolio, and USVC shareholders do not own Mercury shares directly. The value of an investment in USVC will depend on the performance of the Fund’s overall portfolio and not on Mercury alone. Investments in private companies, including Mercury, may be difficult to value, may not have readily available market prices, and may be subject to fair value determinations that could prove inaccurate.

This communication is for informational purposes only, is not intended to be a recommendation for any investment or other advice of any kind and shall not constitute or imply any offer to purchase, sell or hold any security or to enter into or engage in any type of transaction. Any such offers will only be made pursuant to USVC's prospectus, which should be carefully reviewed before investing.

Investing in the USVC Venture Capital Access Fund involves significant risk, including the possible loss of principal. Venture capital investments are speculative, illiquid, and subject to a high degree of risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

USVC Venture Capital Access Fund is distributed by North Capital Private Securities (NCPS), member FINRA/SIPC. NCPS is not affiliated with USVC’s adviser or its affiliates.

Investing in USVC's shares involves substantial risk, including the potential loss of your entire investment. Shares are not listed on any exchange, are illiquid, and liquidity is limited to periodic repurchases at the discretion of the Board, which are not guaranteed. This investment is speculative and suitable only for long-term investors who can bear the risks of limited liquidity. Certain conflicts of interest involving USVC and its affiliates could impact USVC's investment returns and limit the flexibility of its investment policies. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Fees, expenses, and conflicts of interest may reduce returns.

USVC's shares have no history of public trading. You should not expect to be able to sell your shares other than through USVC's repurchase policy, regardless of how USVC performs. USVC does not intend to list its shares on any securities exchange during the continuous offering, and it does not expect a secondary market in the shares to develop.

USVC invests in private funds which are subject to certain risks including those related to illiquidity, indirect fees, valuation, limited operating histories and limited information regarding underlying investments. As a result of the foregoing, an investment in USVC's shares is not suitable for investors that require liquidity, other than liquidity provided through USVC's repurchase policy. The amount of distributions that USVC may pay, if any, is uncertain.