Mercury Benefits from Rising Rates and SVB

The key tailwind is that Mercury makes more money when startup cash balances are large and rates are high, without taking the classic bank risk of lending those deposits long. Mercury sweeps customer deposits to partner banks, gets a share of the interest those balances earn, and adds card, wire, FX, software, and venture debt revenue on top. After SVB failed, founders also wanted a startup focused bank account that felt safer and easier to operate online.1 2 3 4

• Mercury benefited twice from higher rates. First, deposit revenue became much more valuable as rates moved from near 0% to about 5% across the neobank sector. Second, Mercury had a large and growing deposit base to monetize, reaching $20B in deposits and an estimated $500M annualized revenue in 2024, mostly from interest sharing.3 4
• SVB’s collapse created a distribution event. Mercury absorbed more than $2B of deposits in about a week as startups moved operating cash to providers that could onboard fast, spread balances across partner banks for FDIC coverage, and offer treasury options for excess cash. That pulled Mercury closer to being the default operating account for startups and VCs.1 2
• This is also why Mercury looks different from Ramp and Brex. Ramp and Brex are more transaction and software driven, while Mercury is centered on the bank account itself. That makes adjacent products like treasury, bill pay, accounting workflows, and VC specific tools natural extensions, because the cash already sits inside Mercury first.2 3 4

From here, the prize is turning a high trust cash hub into a full startup back office. If Mercury keeps owning the primary account where founders receive funding, pay vendors, move treasury cash, and manage approvals, it can keep expanding into more workflow software and more specialized banking products without giving up its deposit led advantage.2 3 4