Today’s newsletter was crafted by us and sponsored by our friends at Mercury.

Mercury, the banking stack, made a splash with its debut back in 2019 as an early business-focused challenger bank.

Co-founder Immad Akhund started working on the company after reflecting on his own banking difficulties while founding Heyzap (acquired in 2016), and on the experiences of the 200+ startups that he had invested in too. At the same time, he had been impressed with the consumer-focused neobanks that had risen across Europe (think Monzo, Revolut).

European neobanks are known for their modern UIs and super fast onboarding, so the entrepreneurs who knew what they were missing were excited to see Mercury’s launch in the US. Mercury carried on the concept that banking deserves a better UI. An application can be completed in minutes, enabling companies across the world to get an FDIC-insured checking account, debit card, and savings account often within a few hours. You can see the dashboard experience in a new new demo the team shared last month.

The API that Mercury launched next was a part of the company’s vision from the start, Akhund shared. Startups can use the read & write API to customize their banking experience, for example, automating Slack bots to send custom notifications to their teams.

While Mercury has continued to evolve into a full business banking stack (debit cards, currency exchange, and wire transfers were built in after launch), it’s also expanded its focus to providing new offerings that help startups access the capital they need to grow. The team put together an Investor Database, a tool that’s filterable by industry, type, and check size, so that founders can find an investor and get in touch. They also created Mercury Raise, a program that puts startups in front of seasoned investors. Think of it like a founder-friendly Shark Tank.

Now, Mercury has launched Venture Debt to help founders get quality capital without sacrificing too much equity. Minimal dilution and founder-friendly terms can help companies extend their runway, supercharge growth, and even reach a higher valuation.

Mercury is a financial technology, not a bank. Banking services provided by Evolve Bank & Trust®; Member FDIC.

“Go figure, only a week after leaving PH as an SWE, I am back again as a maker because you really can't leave a community as strong as PH,” Tim shared on Rampp’s launch today.

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