Mercury Beta
“Can a startup-focused neobank obtain a bank charter and expand into lending, spend management, and consumer banking to become the complete financial OS for growth companies?”
Founded in 2017 as a fintech focused on startup business banking, Mercury built on a partner-bank model with FDIC-insured institutions acting as the licensed entities. After reaching 100K+ business customers, it expanded in 2024 into consumer banking (Mercury Personal), spend management, bill pay, and invoicing — directly challenging Brex and Ramp. In 2025 it launched its own lending subsidiaries (Mercury Lending, LLC) and received conditional OCC approval for a bank charter, signaling a move from a fintech-on-rails model toward becoming a fully licensed bank with in-house infrastructure.