Mercury CEO and co-founder Immad Akhund has formally announced the creation of a new $26 million fund intended to invest in early-stage startups. This initiative marks an official expansion of Akhund’s considerable history as an angel investor, having already personally supported over 350 startup ventures since 2016. His previous personal investment portfolio features numerous prominent companies such as Airtable, Substack, Linear, Gecko Robotics, Decagon, and Applied Intuition.
In a statement shared online, Akhund expressed his passion for supporting entrepreneurs, indicating that it energizes him, broadens his perspective, and offers a deep sense of fulfillment. He noted that, while he remains fully devoted to his responsibilities as Mercury’s CEO, creating a dedicated fund lets him dig deeper into his commitment to founders and allows him to offer more structured, meaningful support.
The fund will specifically target founders recognized for successfully building impactful products and focus on sectors addressing large-scale opportunities, particularly those within markets potentially valued at $10 billion or greater. Akhund stated he intends to invest in startups committed to creating solutions that advance human progress.
Yash Doshi, an early Mercury investor and long-term collaborator with Akhund on various investment endeavors, will join as a partner on the fund to operationalize its strategy and processes further.
This new investment fund arrives on the heels of Mercury’s own significant funding milestone. Earlier in March, Mercury secured $300 million in an investment round led by Sequoia that valued the fintech firm at $3.5 billion, effectively doubling its valuation from its prior funding event in 2021. Participating investors in that recent round also included firms such as Coatue, Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, Spark Capital, and Marathon.
