Frequently Asked Questions

Mercury is an early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Texas. The firm has a 20-year track record of investing in transformational, early-stage tech startups outside of Silicon Valley. Mercury was the first venture firm to recognize Middle America as a distinct region and has built strong relationships in secondary and tertiary venture markets across the country.

Mercury Fund’s focus is on capital-efficient, early-stage software startups that apply transformative technologies—such as Al, blockchain, and frontier tech—to reinvent core industries including fintech, retail, energy, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and defense.

Mercury has over $750 million in assets under management (AUM).

Currently, we are investing out of Mercury Fund V and expect to raise Fund VI over the next 12 months.

Mercury seeks out entrepreneurs that are in the early stages of product-market fit and are looking to scale their startup. This typically means a startup that is raising Seed or Series A capital.

Mercury’s initial investment ranges from $1-5 million, depending on the stage and capital needs of the company.

Mercury focuses on startups outside of Silicon Valley, with a particular emphasis on Texas and the Central U.S., regions we’ve long considered among the most promising for innovation. With offices in Houston, Austin, Detroit, and Chicago, we’re deeply embedded in these ecosystems and actively invest in high-potential tech startups across the country—wherever visionary founders are reshaping industries.

Mercury seeks to back founders with bold ideas who challenge the status quo and reimagine the future. Ideal teams include subject matter expert (SME) founders with deep, unique knowledge of their industries. We look for these founders to be collaborative leaders, open to coaching and partnership. Because Mercury is an operationally-focused investor, we prioritize founders who are eager to work closely with our team and network to accelerate the growth of their companies.

As operationally-focused venture investors, we provide deep support to help startups scale. Central to our approach is The Mercury Method—our proven framework for early-stage company growth that guides founders through go-to-market strategy, product development, talent, fundraising, and liquidity planning. In addition, we connect our companies with corporate partners, customers, and follow-on investors, leveraging our networks to accelerate growth and long-term success.

Mercury helps companies hit the key milestones required for their next major inflection point—whether that’s a follow-on funding round, strategic partnership, acquisition, or IPO.

If you’re building in one of our focus areas and believe there’s a fit with our firm, we’d love to hear from you. Please reach out via our contact page.

Mercury-backed companies have generated over $15 billion in enterprise value since our inception, underscoring the firm’s focus on building transformational, category-defining tech businesses outside of Silicon Valley.

Mercury Fund has achieved over 30 successful exits through private and public acquisitions, private equity recaps, and IPOs.

Recent IPOs include Ambiq Micro (NYSE: AMBQ) and Neumora (NASDAQ: NMRA). Recent acquisitions include Brassica (BitGo), CloudSnap (Paylocity), Label Insight (Nielsen IQ), PactSafe (Ironclad), Infochimps (CSC), TrendKite (Cision), and Vistar Media (T-Mobile).

Exits from our earlier funds include Alert Logic (Welsh Carson), Black Locus (Home Depot), Deepfield (Nokia), Koupon Media (PSI), Performix (Honeywell), and Phurnace Software (BMC Software).

View our full portfolio

Our current LP base is a balance between institutional investors (university endowments, foundations, family offices, and corporations) and high-net worth individuals committed to long-term innovation in emerging tech markets. If you’re interested in learning more about investing in a future Mercury fund, please contact Jackie Pfister at [email protected].