Mercury Launches $26M Fund for Early-Stage Founders

Mercury CEO Launches $26 Million Venture Fund

Immad Akhund, co-founder and CEO of Mercury, has announced the establishment of a $26 million fund dedicated to supporting startups in their initial phases. This development officially recognizes his substantial involvement in angel investing over several years.

Extensive Angel Investing History

Akhund’s activity as an angel investor dates back to 2016, during which time he has provided early-stage funding to over 350 startups. His investment portfolio showcases a diverse range of successful companies.

• Notable investments include Airtable.
• Applied Intuition is also part of his portfolio.
• He has backed Decagon and Gecko Robotics.
• Further investments include Linear and Substack.

“My passion lies in empowering entrepreneurs, whether through the development of Mercury or through investment activities,” Akhund stated in a recent tweet. He further expressed that assisting ambitious founders in shaping the future provides him with motivation and fulfillment.

Formalizing the Investment Process

The creation of this fund allows Akhund to offer more comprehensive support to founders and streamline his investment approach. To facilitate this, Yash Doshi has joined as a partner.

Doshi is an early investor in Mercury and has previously collaborated with Akhund on various investment endeavors.

Fund Focus and Criteria

The fund’s investment strategy will prioritize founders who have demonstrated success in developing impactful products. It will target markets with a potential value of $10 billion or greater.

Furthermore, the fund will focus on startups that are developing solutions aimed at “advancing humanity,” according to Akhund, who previously served as a part-time partner at Y Combinator.

Recent Mercury Funding

In March of this year, Mercury secured $300 million in funding, both primary and secondary, resulting in a post-money valuation of $3.5 billion. This represents a doubling of its valuation since its last funding round in 2021.

The funding round included participation from prominent investors such as Sequoia, Coatue, CRV, Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital, and Marathon.

Akhund has affirmed that he remains fully committed to his role at Mercury, even with the launch of the new fund.