Mercury hits $1 billion in annualized revenue, up about 50% in a year
Mercury CEO Immad Akhund says the startup bank now runs at $1 billion in annualized revenue, up around 50% year over year, with more than 450,000 customers. Payroll is the next product.
By Tim HaldorssonEditor@TimHaldorsson
Mercury now brings in revenue at a rate of $1 billion a year. CEO Immad Akhund shared the number on the Newcomer Podcast on October 19, along with two more: revenue is up around 50% year over year, and the company has more than 450,000 customers.
Source: Newcomer
How fast it got here
Mercury counts annualized revenue as one month of revenue multiplied by 12, Akhund told Fortune last year. He doesn't use the SaaS-style ARR figure, since a bank earns money from deposits and card spend rather than long-term contracts.
On that measure the company was at $500 million at the end of 2024 and $650 million at the end of the third quarter of 2025. About a year after that it crossed $1 billion.
The customer count has moved quickly too. When Mercury announced its $200 million Series D at a $5.2 billion valuation in May 2026, led by TCV, it said more than 300,000 customers used it. Five months later Akhund puts the figure above 450,000.
Who is signing up
Mercury started as a bank account for tech startups and says one in three U.S. startups now uses it. Its customer list includes Supabase, ElevenLabs, Lovable and Linear. In the Series D post the company said more than 73% of new customers come from outside the AI and tech startup category, including ecommerce brands and professional services firms.
In the same post Akhund pointed to AI as a source of new founders. Mercury saw applications grow 2.5x in Q1 2026 compared with Q1 2025, while new U.S. business applications rose 18% over the same period, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures cited in the Series D post.
Payroll is next
Akhund told Newcomer that Mercury is launching a payroll service. The groundwork started in April, when Mercury acquired Central, an AI-native payroll and benefits startup backed by First Round Capital and Y Combinator. At the time Central had nearly 500 startup customers and had processed more than $175 million in payroll.
Akhund's case for the deal came down to spend. For Mercury customers that run payroll, it makes up roughly 20% of their total spend, according to the acquisition post.
In May, Mercury said it would launch Mercury Command, a tool for running financial tasks in plain language, later in 2026. Akhund and Eric Newcomer covered AI agents spending money and the state of fintech startups in the full episode.
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