Mercury expands card eligibility beyond startups

Opening IO to any eligible Mercury account turns the card from a niche startup perk into a broader customer acquisition and retention tool. The real shift is that Mercury no longer needs a company to look like a classic venture backed startup before attaching credit. That matters because cards drive frequent use, interchange revenue, and tighter product bundling with accounts, bill pay, and expense workflows, while external balance based underwriting lets Mercury reach companies that keep cash outside Mercury but still spend heavily.1 2 3 4

• The old startup card model was built around scarce access. Brex broke through by underwriting cash instead of business history, then Mercury followed with IO on top of its banking product. Removing the startup stage gate is the next step in that same playbook, widening approval beyond founder networks and brand name VC logos.2 3
• Mercury has a concrete advantage in underwriting because IO counts balances held at external banks toward limits. In practice, that means a business can keep operating accounts elsewhere, connect them, and still get more card capacity. That lowers switching friction and helps Mercury win the card before it wins the full treasury relationship.1 3
• This also shows Mercury moving closer to Ramp and Brex. All three are converging on the same finance operations bundle, bank accounts, cards, spend controls, bill pay, and software workflows. The difference is that Mercury starts from deposits and banking, so broader IO eligibility is a way to pull more companies into its higher frequency payments loop.1 2 4

The next step is a wider move from startup banking into default SMB finance operations. As credit access gets easier at account opening, the winning product will be the one that turns the first card swipe into a full operating system for cash, approvals, and payments, with Mercury using banking depth to make that expansion cheaper and stickier over time.1 4