Breakthrough banking for biotech & life sciences
The secure and powerful all-in-one banking solution for researchers and builders in diagnostics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and beyond.
Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC. Deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank.
Empirically better banking for biotech & life sciences
Deposit protection is in our DNA
Get up to $5M in FDIC insurance through our partner banks and sweep networks — plus access additional security through a money market fund.
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Send payments, skip the fees and phone calls
Pay your team and contractors with free USD wires, ACH payments, and checks without spending time away from the lab. Plus, save even more time by setting up recurring payments.
Less time on AP, more time for R&D
Drag and drop invoices to pay them quickly, and sync with QuickBooks and Xero and download NetSuite-friendly reports.
Here’s the evidence to prove it
At Lactiga, we’re focused on R&D so we want to minimize time spent on banking. Mercury’s intuitive dashboard and long list of (free!) payment options has helped us quickly transfer funds by wire, ACH, and check – even internationally – and it all feels so easy.
Viraj Mane, PHD
Co-founder & CSO
Lactiga
Life Science
I love how easy it is to process payments without having to call to verify each one. Plus, Mercury’s permission structure lets me give the team access to the info they need while keeping the account secure.
Dina Burkitbayeva
Co-founder & CEO
Freedom Biosciences
Life Science
Mercury has been there for us as a company since day one. The online access and tooling is what a modern experience should feel like and their products have been great for protecting and responsibly growing our $12M seed fundraise.
Wyatt J. McDonnell, PhD
Co-founder & CEO
Infinimmune
Life Science
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Frequently asked questions
You’ll need your company’s official formation documents, your IRS-issued EIN document (for U.S. entities only), and a picture of the government ID (e.g., a passport or U.S. driver’s license) for each founder or majority owner of your company. You'll also need to provide some information about your company and each company owner.Customers must have some type of existing or planned operations in the U.S. and a U.S. or international address for their principal place of business. This can be a residential address, but may not be a registered agent, PO box, or UPS box address. Our customer base includes startups and ecommerce companies, as well as venture capital firms with entities in the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, and United Arab Emirates. Upon applying, we’ll review to ensure you have up-to-date formation documents and otherwise satisfy our onboarding requirements.We cannot currently support accounts for businesses with founders or financial controllers living in the countries and regions listed here.For more information on eligibility and required documents, please see this article.
Mercury business banking is free to use. There are no account minimums, overdraft fees, monthly fees, or account opening fees. However, certain advanced features may incur fees. These include: making mass payments on our API, accessing Mercury Treasury account management, making non-USD business debit or credit card transactions, exchanging money in non-USD currencies, and sending USD internationally with optional premium processing. Customers have the option to select a paid plan (starting at $35/month) for access to these advanced payment workflows, including more invoicing features, our enriched NetSuite automations, and reimbursing out-of-pocket expenses for more than 5 active users per month. Learn more about pricing here. If your business doesn’t need access to these advanced financial workflows quite yet, don't worry. Our business checking and savings bank accounts are free for everyone. Anyone can send payments from their Mercury account without subscribing to a paid plan. When you're ready, you can upgrade to access the advanced features at the price point that makes sense for your company and volume of business.
As a Mercury customer, you have the option to send USD international wires for free. We offer two options for how those wires are processed. The first, coded as SHA, is standard among most banks and while free to you, may result in intermediary bank fees that are absorbed by your recipient. The second, coded as OUR, gives you the option to pay a flat fee of $15 so that any intermediary fees will be charged back to Mercury, making it more likely your recipient will receive the full amount.
Your checking and savings deposits are held in your name across a sweep network of multiple regulated banks. Through this program, we’ve upgraded the FDIC insurance on Mercury checking and savings accounts to up to $5M — 20x the per bank limit.In addition to working with our banking partners to keep your funds secure, Mercury’s world-class fraud engineering and compliance teams work together to build tools and processes that spot suspicious activities and stop them in their tracks.
Mercury checking and savings deposits are FDIC-insured up to $5M through our partner banks and use of sweep networks. As a broader effort, we are working on expanding all coverage even further. You can learn more about FDIC insurance here.
Even though opening a Mercury account is free, we make money in a number of different ways. We earn interest on deposits, foreign exchange processing on international wires, and fees paid on Mercury Treasury and Mercury Venture Debt. Additionally, when you use your debit card or IO credit card, Visa and Mastercard charge a fee to the merchants — we receive a percentage of this fee, known as interchange. We also have subscription revenue from our financial workflows products and Mercury Personal.
Mercury is fully integrated with accounting tools like QuickBooks Online, Xero, and NetSuite, allowing you to sync your transactions. Additionally, you can authorize wire drawdowns, most commonly used for payroll processing, with payroll providers such as Gusto, Sequoia One, ADP, and TriNet. Mercury is also compatible with payment processors like Stripe, Square, Shopify, and Paypal.
Open your account in 10 minutes or less
Get started with banking you can trust with your breakthrough.