Immad Akhund is a British-American technology entrepreneur, engineer, angel investor, and the co-founder and CEO of Mercury, a fintech company building modern financial infrastructure for startups and growing businesses.
Akhund founded Mercury in 2017 alongside Jason Zhang and Max Tagher after experiencing firsthand how difficult traditional banking could be for startup founders. The company launched publicly in 2019 with a simple proposition: banking should work like a modern software product.
Since then, Mercury has expanded far beyond a business bank account into a broader financial platform covering banking, payments, cards, treasury management, lending, and financial workflows.
In May 2026, Mercury announced a $200 million Series D at a $5.2 billion valuation, led by TCV.
Early Career and Engineering Background
Akhund began his entrepreneurial career as an engineer shortly after graduating. He has described his journey as beginning approximately 16 years before he started sharing his CEO lessons publicly, emphasizing that much of what he learned about leadership came through experience rather than formal management training.
His technical background became an important part of his approach to entrepreneurship.
Rather than viewing financial services primarily as a traditional banking business, Akhund approached the industry as a technology problem: how could software eliminate the friction that founders experienced when managing their company's money?
That perspective would eventually lead to Mercury.
Founding Heyzap
Before Mercury, Akhund co-founded Heyzap, a mobile gaming and developer platform.
Heyzap became his first major entrepreneurial success and was acquired for approximately $45 million in 2016.
The experience gave Akhund several important lessons about startups, including product development, fundraising, hiring, scaling, and ultimately selling a technology company.
It also exposed him to a problem that would become central to his next company.
As a repeat founder, Akhund had experienced the frustrations of dealing with traditional banks firsthand.
Opening accounts could take weeks.
Financial products were fragmented.
Fees were difficult to understand.
And many banking interfaces appeared to have been designed for an earlier generation of businesses.
The Idea Behind Mercury
Akhund's experience as a startup founder led him to a straightforward conclusion:
Founders needed a bank built around the way startups actually operate.
In 2017, he founded Mercury with Jason Zhang and Max Tagher.
The founders wanted to make business banking feel like a modern SaaS product rather than a traditional financial institution.
Mercury's original vision was therefore not simply to create another checking account.
It was to build a financial operating system for startups.
As Akhund later explained, the company's long-term vision was always larger than a business bank account: Mercury wanted to become an essential product through which companies could manage their finances from one place.
Launching Mercury
Mercury launched out of private alpha in 2019.
From the beginning, the company emphasized a software-first experience.
The product combined business banking with a clean digital interface designed specifically for startups.
Mercury initially focused heavily on venture-backed technology companies and startups.
This was strategically important.
Rather than trying to serve every possible small business immediately, Mercury concentrated on customers who were highly technology-oriented and likely to value a modern financial platform.
The approach helped the company develop a strong brand within the startup ecosystem.
Banking as Software
Akhund's fundamental insight was that banking could be treated as a product.
Traditional banks tend to organize their products around financial institutions, accounts, branches, and individual services.
Mercury organized its experience around the founder.
The company sought to answer questions such as:
- How much cash does my company have?
- How quickly can I move money?
- Which employees have spending authority?
- How can I manage corporate cards?
- How can I understand my cash flow?
- How can I access financing?
- How can I automate financial operations?
This approach helped Mercury differentiate itself from traditional banks while competing directly with a growing generation of fintech companies.
Building a Financial Operating System
Mercury gradually expanded beyond banking.
Its platform now includes products and workflows around:
- Business checking
- Savings and treasury
- Corporate cards
- Payments
- Accounts payable
- Accounts receivable
- Expense management
- Venture debt
- Capital
- Financial workflows
Akhund's objective has consistently been to bring these functions together.
In his words, banking should do more than simply hold money; it should bring the ways businesses use money into a single product.
This has become the central strategic idea behind Mercury.
The Startup Customer Advantage
One of Mercury's most important competitive advantages is its relationship with startup founders.
Because the company was founded by entrepreneurs who had experienced startup banking problems themselves, Mercury was able to build its product around the specific needs of venture-backed companies.
That includes:
- Fast account setup
- Startup-friendly financial products
- Automated payments
- Corporate cards
- Treasury management
- Venture financing
- Integrations with startup software
- Financial visibility
This specialization helped Mercury establish a strong position within the technology startup ecosystem.
Rapid Growth
Mercury's growth has accelerated significantly.
By 2025, the company had raised a $300 million Series C at a $3.5 billion valuation, with Sequoia Capital leading the round alongside returning investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, and CRV. At the time, Mercury reported more than 200,000 customers.
By late 2025, Mercury was generating approximately $650 million in annualized revenue, according to Fortune, while maintaining profitability.
In May 2026, the company announced another major milestone: a $200 million Series D at a $5.2 billion valuation.
Reuters reported that Mercury had more than 300,000 customers, approximately one-third of U.S. startups, and $650 million in annualized revenue.
Profitability in Fintech
One of the more notable aspects of Mercury's trajectory is its profitability.
While many fintech startups prioritized aggressive growth during the 2020–2021 technology boom, Mercury focused increasingly on building a sustainable financial business.
By 2025, Mercury had achieved multiple consecutive years of profitability, according to industry research and reporting.
This gave Akhund an unusual position among startup CEOs.
Mercury was growing rapidly while simultaneously demonstrating that its business model could produce substantial profits.
Expanding Into Financial Workflows
Akhund's vision for Mercury has continued to expand.
The company has introduced financial workflows designed to help businesses automate activities surrounding their money.
The underlying idea is simple:
If a company's bank account is connected to its financial operations, the bank should help automate what happens around that money.
That means Mercury can potentially move from being a place where companies store money to becoming a system that helps them manage and deploy money.
This is a much larger opportunity.
Entering Payroll and HR
In April 2026, Mercury acquired Central, an AI-native payroll, benefits, and compliance platform for startups.
The acquisition expanded Mercury's ambitions beyond conventional banking.
Central's technology covers areas including:
- Payroll
- Benefits
- PTO
- HR
- State compliance
- AI-powered workflows
The move reflects Akhund's broader strategy of building a comprehensive operating system around the financial and administrative needs of startups.
If successful, Mercury could increasingly become the central infrastructure through which founders manage not only money, but many of the operational processes surrounding their businesses.
Betting on AI-Native Startups
Mercury's latest strategy is increasingly focused on the emergence of AI-native companies.
The company believes the next generation of startups will be created and scaled differently because AI allows small teams to build companies with fewer employees and significantly greater leverage.
Mercury wants to become the financial partner for these companies.
Reuters reported in May 2026 that Mercury was specifically positioning itself around the growth of AI startups and counted companies such as Supabase, ElevenLabs, and Lovable among its customers.
This represents a natural extension of Mercury's original startup-focused strategy.
The company that once specialized in venture-backed startups is now targeting a particularly fast-growing segment of that market.
Building Mercury Bank
Another major development is Mercury's progress toward greater control over its banking infrastructure.
In 2026, Mercury received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Mercury Bank, a fully chartered national bank.
The move could give Mercury greater control over its financial products and infrastructure.
It could also allow the company to expand services that require more direct banking capabilities.
For Akhund, this represents another step toward the company's long-term ambition of rebuilding business banking from the ground up.
Leadership Philosophy
Akhund has been unusually open about how he approaches being a CEO.
In Mercury's "How I CEO" series, he has written extensively about leadership, transparency, working with investors, taking advice, and managing competition.
One recurring theme is that there is no universal formula for being a good CEO.
Leadership depends on:
- The company
- The industry
- The stage of growth
- The team
- The individual CEO
Akhund emphasizes learning through experience rather than blindly copying the methods of other executives.
Focus on Customers, Not Competitors
One of Akhund's clearest leadership principles concerns competition.
His advice is to avoid becoming overly focused on competitors.
Instead, founders should listen closely to customers.
Customers may mention competitors when explaining what they want, but the deeper insight is understanding why they want a particular capability.
Akhund argues that companies should use customer feedback to understand problems rather than allow competitors to dictate their product roadmap.
This philosophy has influenced Mercury's product development.
The goal is not simply to match competing fintech companies feature-for-feature.
It is to understand what founders actually need and build the financial infrastructure around those needs.
Transparency as a Leadership Principle
Akhund has also emphasized transparency as an important component of company culture.
As Mercury grew from a startup into a multi-billion-dollar fintech company, communication became increasingly important.
Transparency helps employees understand not only what decisions are being made, but why they are being made.
For Akhund, this is particularly important in a rapidly changing company where employees must make decisions without waiting for constant executive direction.
Treating Investors as Partners
Akhund has argued that founders should treat investors as partners rather than parents.
The distinction reflects his belief that CEOs should maintain a healthy, professional relationship with their investors.
Investors can provide:
- Advice
- Networks
- Capital
- Strategic perspective
- Recruiting support
But founders ultimately need to own the company's decisions.
This approach has allowed Akhund to work with some of the most prominent venture firms in technology while maintaining a strong founder-led culture.
The Angel Investor
Akhund is also an active angel investor.
Mercury's investor database profile says he has invested in 100+ seed-stage startups, including companies such as Airtable, Substack, and Rappi.
Earlier SEC materials associated with Mercury described him as having invested in more than 200 startups.
His investing activity gives him another perspective on entrepreneurship.
As both a founder and investor, Akhund has exposure to hundreds of startup ideas, business models, founders, and emerging technologies.
This creates a feedback loop between his operating experience at Mercury and his broader view of the startup ecosystem.
The Serial Founder Advantage
Akhund's career can be understood as a progression:
Engineer → Founder → Acquirer → Investor → Repeat Founder → Fintech CEO
Heyzap taught him how to build and sell a startup.
His angel investments exposed him to hundreds of other companies.
Mercury allowed him to apply those lessons to a much larger and more ambitious market.
That combination is one of the reasons Akhund's perspective on entrepreneurship is distinctive.
He has experienced startup building from multiple angles.
The Bigger Vision
Mercury's ultimate ambition is considerably larger than business banking.
The company wants to become the financial infrastructure for ambitious companies.
That could mean providing the tools businesses need from their earliest days through significant scale:
Banking → Payments → Cards → Treasury → Capital → Financial Operations → Payroll → AI-powered workflows
If Mercury can successfully connect these services, it could become something closer to a financial operating system for businesses.
That is the long-term opportunity Akhund has been pursuing since Mercury's founding.
Immad Akhund – Key Facts
Full Name: Immad Akhund
Profession: Entrepreneur, engineer, investor, fintech executive
Current Position: Co-Founder & CEO, Mercury
Company Founded: 2017
Co-Founders: Jason Zhang and Max Tagher
Previous Company: Heyzap
Heyzap Exit: Approximately $45 million acquisition in 2016
Mercury Launch: 2019
2025 Valuation: $3.5 billion
2026 Valuation: $5.2 billion
2026 Funding: $200 million Series D
Customers: 300,000+ reported in 2026
2025 Annualized Revenue: Approximately $650 million
Known For: Mercury, fintech, startup banking, financial infrastructure, angel investing
Investments: 100+ seed-stage startups reported by Mercury's investor database
Immad Akhund's Entrepreneurial Legacy
Immad Akhund's career is a strong example of how founders can identify opportunities by solving problems they personally experienced.
He experienced the frustrations of traditional banking as a startup founder.
Instead of accepting them as inevitable, he built Mercury.
What began as a modern bank account for startups has evolved into a much broader financial platform serving hundreds of thousands of businesses.
The company's $5.2 billion valuation, $650 million annualized revenue, and 300,000+ customers demonstrate how far that original idea has progressed.
But Akhund's biggest ambition is still ahead.
Mercury is moving into payroll, financial workflows, lending, AI-powered operations, and potentially its own banking infrastructure. The 2026 acquisition of Central and conditional approval for Mercury Bank demonstrate the company's intention to expand beyond fintech infrastructure into a much broader business operating platform.
Akhund's story is ultimately about turning banking into software.
And his long-term bet is that the next generation of companies—particularly AI-native startups—will expect their financial infrastructure to be as intelligent, automated, and easy to use as the software they build.
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