# Immad Akhund

> Immad Akhund is the co-founder and CEO of Mercury, the digital banking platform trusted by 1 in 3 U.S. startups with $650M+ in annualized revenue and a $3.5B valuation. A Cambridge-trained computer scientist who came up through Y Combinator twice, he has built and sold two prior startups (Clickpass, Heyzap), made 350+ angel investments in companies like Airtable, Substack, and Rippling, and in April 2026 secured conditional OCC approval to charter Mercury Bank, N.A.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Mercury
- **Organizations:** Mercury, Y Combinator, Heyzap, Clickpass, Immad Akhund Fund
- **From:** Pakistan
- **Nationality:** British-Pakistani
- **Education:** MA/MS in Computer Science, Clare College, University of Cambridge
- **Known for:** Co-founded Mercury, now serving 1 in 3 U.S. startups with $650M+ annualized revenue, Mercury reached $3.5B valuation in March 2025 with $300M Series C led by Sequoia, Grew Mercury to 300,000+ customers with 73.8 NPS (vs. industry avg of 34)

## Career timeline

- **2004-2005** — Software Developer at Aquila
- **2005-2006** — Financial Software Developer at Bloomberg, London
- **2007** — Co-founded Clickpass (YC S07), an OpenID single-sign-on service
- **2008** — Clickpass acquired by Yola; co-founded Heyzap (YC W09)
- **2008-2016** — Built Heyzap into a mobile gaming and advertising platform
- **2016** — Heyzap acquired by Fyber (RNTS Media) for $45 million
- **2017** — Served as part-time partner at Y Combinator (W17 batch)
- **2017** — Co-founded Mercury with Jason Zhang and Max Tagher
- **2019-04** — Mercury launched publicly after 18 months of stealth development
- **2021** — Mercury raised ~$120M Series B at ~$1.6B valuation (a16z, Coatue, CRV)
- **2023-03** — SVB collapsed; Mercury shipped Mercury Vault in a weekend, gained 17,000+ new customers
- **2025-03** — Mercury raised $300M Series C at $3.5B valuation led by Sequoia
- **2025-05** — Launched $26M solo GP venture fund formalizing decade of angel investing
- **2025-11** — Mercury reached $650M annualized revenue with 300,000+ customers
- **2026-04** — Mercury received OCC conditional approval to establish Mercury Bank, N.A.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Mercury, now serving 1 in 3 U.S. startups with $650M+ annualized revenue
- Mercury reached $3.5B valuation in March 2025 with $300M Series C led by Sequoia
- Grew Mercury to 300,000+ customers with 73.8 NPS (vs. industry avg of 34)
- $248B in transaction volume processed in 2025 (59% YoY growth)
- Mercury achieved 3-4 consecutive years of GAAP profitability; 10 consecutive EBITDA-positive quarters
- Received OCC conditional approval for Mercury Bank, N.A. charter (April 2026)
- Shipped Mercury Vault in 72 hours during the SVB crisis, protecting customer deposits
- Made 350+ angel investments including Airtable, Substack, Rippling, Deel, ElevenLabs
- Went through Y Combinator twice (S07 with Clickpass, W09 with Heyzap)
- Sold Heyzap to Fyber for $45 million in 2016
- Served as Y Combinator part-time partner (W17 batch)
- Launched $26M solo GP venture fund in 2025

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Mercury received conditional OCC approval to establish Mercury Bank, N.A. - a landmark move toward a full national bank charter
- **2025-11** — Mercury reached $650M annualized revenue with 300,000+ customers and 50% YoY growth
- **2025-05** — Immad launched a $26M solo GP venture fund, formalizing 350+ angel investments
- **2025-03** — Mercury raised $300M Series C at $3.5B valuation led by Sequoia Capital
- **2025-03** — Mercury processed $248B in transaction volume, up 59% YoY

## Links

- Website: https://mercury.com/blog/authors/immad-akhund
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iakhund
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/immad

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/immad-akhund
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-28