| Mercury Newsletter |
Q2 2025 |
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| The Financial Renaissance Continues |
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In our last newsletter, we discussed how creative disruption is reshaping the innovation economy, specifically within Mercury’s recent investment focus areas of AI, Fintech/Blockchain, and Space. This quarter, we’re zooming in on how Fintech is disrupting the financial services industry, specifically around our investments in stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure. Globally, annual stablecoin transaction volume now exceeds that of Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal combined, becoming core to the global financial system as infrastructure, adoption and regulations align.
The regulatory landscape has become a tailwind catching up to the pace of innovation. This week the House will debate and possibly vote on the CLARITY Act, creating a clear regulatory framework for crypto. In addition, the House will vote on the Senate’s GENIUS Act, which provides the first clear federal framework for stablecoins, requiring them to be pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by cash or Treasuries. The GENIUS Act introduces meaningful consumer protections and narrows the field to compliant (KYC) issuers. Circle (CRCL), which manages USDC (USD Coin) that maintains a 1:1 value with the U.S. dollar, is now the only pure-play U.S. stablecoin issuer. Its recent IPO was priced at $31 per share, with the stock trading as high as $300 before settling in recently at $200 with a market cap of $50B. Tether, by contrast, remains the dominant stablecoin issuer in offshore markets but outside the U.S. regulatory perimeter, but is seeking to change that stance.
Neither Circle or Tether, however, are permitted to provide yield-bearing stablecoin products in the U.S., which is where Mercury’s newest portco OpenTrade comes in. OpenTrade built a synthetic yield infrastructure platform that operates squarely within the GENIUS Act’s framework. Fintechs can white-label and fully embed stablecoin yield products, using USDC or EURC (Euro Coin), into their existing apps. Mercury co-led the company’s most recent $7M round alongside Notion Capital, with participation from a16z, AlbionVC, Circle, CMCC Global, and other top-tier investors.
Mercury is also invested in Plasma, a blockchain purpose-built for stablecoins. Plasma is a “stablechain” built on top of Bitcoin’s blockchain. Plasma supports fast, low-cost stablecoin transactions (especially for USDT) that is ideal for payments, DeFi, and real-world asset (RWA) transfers. The company recently raised a round from Founders Fund at a $500M pre-money valuation and will offer a Public Sale of its tokens this month. Plasma is also backed by Tether, Framework, Bitfinex, Nomura, and Peter Thiel. Earlier this year, Plasma acquired Mercury portfolio company Apparatus – a unique blockchain platform we backed at both the Seed and Series A stages.
We believe this is just the beginning. As stablecoins continue to go mainstream, Mercury continues to track opportunities in RWA tokenization and the broader institutionalization of Bitcoin. For a deeper dive into how Mercury is thinking about blockchain, fintech, and what comes next in web3, we invite you to revisit Sam Lewis and Blair Garrou’s recent webinar.
We’ll continue to share insights as this market evolves. In the meantime, we’re always here to connect.
Sincerely,
The Mercury Team
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| Mercury Team Updates |
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| In May, Mercury hosted its 10th annual CXO Summit in Austin, bringing together software executives, investors, and corporate leaders. This year’s focus: practical strategies for building and scaling in the Age of AI—from GenAI and data science to capital formation and M&A. |
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| Mercury’s inaugural 2025 State of Early-Stage GTM Report was released in May. The report, authored by Mercury Venture Partner Aileen Allen, surveyed 150+ early-stage B2B GTM leaders. The report includes insights for companies on everything from funnel conversion rate benchmarks to sales compensation modeling. |
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| Adrian Fortino co-founded the inaugural Great Lakes VC Summit held in Indiana, bringing together 65+ investors from seven states and over $15B in AUM. The summit was created to strengthen regional VC networks and accelerate collaborative growth across the Great Lakes ecosystem. |
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| Last quarter Mercury led 3 in-person panels at “Software Day at the Ion”. Sessions covered AI-native startups, the Texas VC scene, and real-world blockchain use cases. Listen to the full sessions here. |
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| Blair Garrou sat down with Chuck Yates for a candid and entertaining conversation covering Mercury’s early days, frontier tech bets, and why we backed Digital Wildcatters’ evolution into Collide. Chuck—also a co-founder of Collide—makes this a particularly fun and insightful listen. |
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| Aziz Gilani judged the World Finals Pitch Competition at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s SelectUSA Summit, where top international startups competed live to showcase their innovation and U.S. expansion plans. |
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| Aileen Allen emceed the Elevator Pitch competition at this year’s Rice Business Plan Competition, where Mercury was proud to take part once again. The event continues to be a standout platform for the next generation of innovators. |
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| Aziz Gilani spoke at the SEC’s 44th Annual Small Business Forum in D.C., joining a panel on strategies for growth-stage companies and emerging funds. The event focused on how policy can better support entrepreneurs and small business capital formation. |
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| Blair Garrou and Samantha Lewis joined The Family Office Association for a private dinner to discuss where Mercury sees the next wave of opportunity across innovation in AI, blockchain, and space. Topics included enterprise adoption of GenAI, stablecoin regulation, and the growing role of private capital in space technology. |
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| Mercury In the News |
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| Aziz Gilani shares his insights with Carta on the rise of PE-driven M&A—a trend we’re seeing across the Mercury portfolio. With PE-backed deals making up 36% of all M&A in 2024, alignment through performance-based incentives is more important than ever. |
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| Heath Butler shares with Sports Business Journal what he looks for in a founder pitch—and it’s more than just a compelling story. He emphasizes the importance of understanding burn, risk, and how far the funding will take you, noting that the numbers often speak louder than the narrative. |
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| Samantha Lewis joins the Austinpreneur to break down what early-stage founders need to know about VC in today’s market. She shares how we evaluate startups, what raises red flags, and where founders should focus. |
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| Portco News |
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Chicago-based MSPbots continues to expand its AI toolkit for Managed Service Providers with the launch of its AI Sentiment Analysis Application. By analyzing support ticket notes in real time, the app helps MSPs identify client frustration early—improving service, reducing churn, and boosting retention.
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OmniScience CEO Angela Holmes was named AI Entrepreneur of the Year by Women in AI. Under her leadership, OmniScience launched Vivo—a GenAI-powered clinical trial control tower that’s reshaping how pharma accelerates trials, reduces costs, and improves outcomes.
Read more |
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| Portco Growth Rounds |
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Houston-based Cart.com announced a $50M fundraise and a $1.6B valuation as it continues to scale its unified commerce platform and logistics network. The company acquired health and beauty commerce enablement platform OceanX in December 2024, and achieved its entire 2025 sales bookings goal in Q2’25.
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New York-based Plasma secured a $500M pre-money valuation with an equity investment from Founders Fund, and over $1B in stablecoin deposits ahead of its upcoming ICO. Plasma is building infrastructure to power stablecoin payments. In 2024, the company acquired Mercury portco Apparatus, which Mercury backed from Seed through Series A.
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Seattle-based Nectar Social raised a $10.6M seed round led by GV (Google Ventures) and True Ventures, emerging from stealth with a platform built to turn social engagement into revenue. As the traditional marketing funnel breaks down, Nectar’s AI-driven tools help disruptor brands convert organic interactions into measurable commerce. Mercury is proud to back the team as an early investor.
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| New Portco Investments |
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London-based OpenTrade raised $7M to expand access to yield-bearing stablecoin accounts in a round co-led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital. With U.S. regulations limiting issuers like Tether and Circle from offering yield, OpenTrade is filling the gap—powering a B2B2C “yield-as-a-service” model already in use across Latin America and Europe.
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Houston-based Collide.ai has raised a $5M seed round to scale its GenAI-native platform for the energy sector. The round was led by Mercury, with participation from Bryan Sheffield, Billy Quinn, David Albin, and other energy industry leaders. Built by oil and gas veterans, Collide is already used by more than 6,000 professionals across 122 countries—helping engineers and operators save up to 33% of their time.
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