RoundOS vs Mercury Raise: a bank's funding perk vs a fundraising OS you run

What Mercury Raise was, and what remains (from Mercury's pages)

Mercury is a business-banking fintech used by 300K+ companies, reportedly at $650M annual revenue. Mercury Raise was its founder-fundraising program. Based only on Mercury's own posts:

• The original program (2020, updated 2025). Mercury Raise "connects startups raising seed rounds with great investors." A founder submitted company details and a pitch deck; Mercury kept it in a database for one month, put it in front of 40+ angels and VCs (named examples included Elad Gil, Sahil Lavingia, Sequoia, and Andreessen Horowitz), and personally introduced the founder if an investor was interested. Mercury framed it as centralizing angel-investing opportunities "with minimal founder effort required."
• The closure (September 12, 2025). Mercury announced Raise would "no longer be a standalone program," and that it was closing applications for and pausing the Founder Community, Investor Connect, and Fundraising Lab.
• What remains. Mercury continues to support founders through Expert Sessions and a free Investor Database, plus content and events.

Sources: mercury.com/blog/mercury-raise · mercury.com/blog/closing-mercury-raise. Facts reflect these posts as of June 2026. Mercury Raise is no longer a standalone program; describe it accurately as wound down, with an Investor Database and Expert Sessions remaining.

Mercury is an excellent bank, and its remaining founder resources are genuinely useful free perks. The point is not that Mercury is weak. It is that a bank's fundraising add-on is not a system you can run a round on, and it can be paused when the bank reprioritizes.

What RoundOS does

RoundOS is an AI-native fundraising operating system for founder-led rounds. It is not a curated funnel or a bank feature. It is software you own and run. You connect an investor list, inbox and calendar context, meeting notes and transcripts, deck context, screenshots, notes, CRM exports, and network exports. RoundOS adds an investor intelligence layer on top.

From your sources, RoundOS enriches the pipeline with fund and person dossiers, contacts across fund roles (partner, principal, analyst), recent news and activity signals, warm-path context, and recommended next moves. It keeps meeting memory, so a conversation from three weeks ago shapes today's follow-up. It drafts context-aware investor messages for you to review and send. On higher-tier plans, RoundOS can actively enrich your pipeline rather than only store what you uploaded.

The contrast in one line: Mercury Raise asked you to submit a deck and wait for an intro. RoundOS hands you the pipeline, the context, and the next move, and keeps doing it whether or not your bank runs a program this quarter.

Feature comparison

Read the table by control. Mercury Raise minimized your effort by doing the curation for you, then paused the program. RoundOS asks you to run the round, and gives you the intelligence to run it well.

Where Mercury wins

Be generous and specific.

• It is your bank, and the perks are free. If you bank with Mercury, the Investor Database and Expert Sessions cost nothing and sit next to excellent banking, treasury, and cards. RoundOS is not a bank and does not replace one.
• Minimal effort, when a program runs. When Raise was active, you submitted a deck and Mercury did the outreach to a curated set of investors. For a time-strapped founder, low effort is real value.
• Network and credibility. Mercury's Silicon Valley roots and named investors gave its intros weight, and 1-in-3 startups bank there.
• Stability of the bank itself. Mercury the bank is well-funded and profitable. The banking relationship is not going anywhere, even if a specific program does.

If you want free founder perks alongside your bank and minimal-effort exposure to investors, Mercury is a reasonable home, and you can stop here.

Where RoundOS wins

RoundOS pulls ahead when you want to own the round rather than depend on a perk.

• You control the system. RoundOS is a dedicated product, not a program a bank can pause. Your pipeline, enrichment, and next moves do not depend on someone else's roadmap.
• Active pipeline, not passive curation. Instead of dropping a deck in a database and waiting, you enrich and prioritize your own pipeline and run it daily.
• Depth a database does not have. Fund and person dossiers, role-level contacts, live signals, and warm-path context tied to your sources, not a static listing.
• Meeting memory and follow-up. A detail from three weeks ago shapes today's message, and nothing slips.
• Founder-voice drafts you review. RoundOS drafts one high-context message per investor in your voice. You edit and send. Nothing goes out without your review.

Example workflow: owning the round instead of waiting on an intro

Before. You banked with Mercury and dropped your deck into Raise, hoping for an intro. Some founders got one. Then the standalone program closed, and you were left with a free investor database and a spreadsheet of 60 names, no context, no priorities, no next step.

After, in RoundOS.

1. You import the list, including names from any investor database, and connect your inbox, calendar, meeting transcripts, and notes.
2. RoundOS enriches each record: the fund's stage and check size, the right partner versus principal versus analyst, recent deals and news, and your warm path.
3. It flags the partner who just led a deal in your category, and the warm intro running through an advisor in your network.
4. It drafts a short note in your voice referencing your context and that recent deal, and queues it for review.
5. You edit a line and send. The thread is logged, and the next reminder lands the day it would go stale.

Keep banking with whoever you like. Run the round on a system you control.

Decision checklist

Choose Mercury's founder resources if you check most of these:

• You already bank with Mercury and want free perks alongside it.
• You want minimal-effort exposure to investors via a curated path.
• A free investor database and expert sessions meet your needs.
• You are comfortable depending on a bank-run program's availability.

Choose RoundOS if you check most of these:

• You want to own and run your round, not depend on a perk.
• You want enrichment, role-level contacts, and live signals on your pipeline.
• You want meeting memory and founder-voice drafts you review.
• You want a daily next-move queue that does not get paused.

You can do both: bank with Mercury and use its free database, and run the actual round on RoundOS.

FAQ

Is Mercury Raise still available? Not as a standalone program. Mercury announced in September 2025 that Raise would no longer be standalone, pausing the Founder Community, Investor Connect, and Fundraising Lab. Mercury continues to offer a free Investor Database and Expert Sessions.

Is RoundOS a Mercury Raise alternative? For running a round, yes. RoundOS is a dedicated fundraising OS you operate, with enrichment, meeting memory, and founder-reviewed outreach. Mercury Raise was a bank-attached program, now wound down, and Mercury's remaining resources are a free database and sessions.

Does RoundOS replace my bank? No. RoundOS is not a bank and does not handle deposits, cards, or treasury. Keep Mercury or any bank for banking, and use RoundOS to run the raise.

Does RoundOS make investor intros for me like Mercury Raise did? No. RoundOS surfaces warm-path context and drafts the outreach in your voice, but you stay in control of who you contact and what you send. It does not put your deck into a curated funnel on your behalf.

Does RoundOS send automated outreach to investors? No. RoundOS drafts context-aware messages from your history for you to review and send. Every message waits for your edit and approval before it goes out.

Try it

Import your investor list, including any names from a free database, and connect your source context. RoundOS enriches the pipeline with fund and person data, partner/principal/analyst contacts, news signals, and warm-path context, then turns that into founder-reviewed drafts and a daily list of next moves. Bank wherever you like. Own the system that runs your round.