Inside the $5.2B Fintech Building the Future of Banking – Immad Akhund, Mercury | High Conviction #4

Immad Akhund co-founded Mercury in 2017 to fix a problem he had experienced himself: startups didn't have banking built for how they actually work. Today Mercury serves 300,000+ customers, employs 1,300 people, and recently raised a $200M Series D at a $5.2B valuation led by TCV, with participation from existing investors including Sequoia, Coatue, and Andreessen Horowitz. I sat down with Immad to discuss how Mercury built a financial platform that businesses rely on, and where it goes next, from conditional approval to establish a bank to a growing AI product suite. We also explored what defines great founders, and why AI has reset the playing field for anyone starting out. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:41 Early Life & Lessons from Heyzap 5:04 Starting Mercury and Building Trust 11:43 How the Mercury Model Works 18:32 Becoming a Chartered Bank 22:49 The SVB Collapse 28:41 Hiring and Culture 31:15 What Makes a Great Founder 35:03 Series D & Raising Capital 37:57 Building AI into Mercury 40:15 Reflections & Advice for the AI Era