$180m · Series B · Fintech · New York, US
Augustus, the fintech formerly known as Ivy, has raised $180m in Series B funding at a $1bn valuation. Tiger Global led the round, with Hummingbird, QED and founders and executives from Nubank, Ramp, Circle and Deel among the participants. The company said the capital will help it expand dollar access for financial institutions in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, according to its funding announcement.
Direct dollar access is the product
Augustus is building banking infrastructure for international fintechs, digital-asset companies and banks that need dollar accounts and payment rails. Its platform combines operating and virtual accounts with domestic and international payments, stablecoin transfers, treasury services and lending through APIs. The company says its proprietary Marble core is designed to automate operations and move money around the clock.
The commercial pitch is to remove layers between a non-US financial institution and the US dollar system. International fintechs often depend on sponsor or correspondent banks, middleware and separate providers for accounts, payments and on-chain settlement. Augustus wants one regulated platform to control more of that stack. That can shorten integration chains and give customers a single operational counterparty, but it also concentrates the burden of compliance, liquidity and uptime inside Augustus.
The company says its European subsidiaries already provide euro clearing and that it processes billions for customers including Kraken. It reported 10x year-on-year growth before the Series B in its May charter announcement. Those are company-supplied figures, but they show why the round is aimed at scaling regulated infrastructure rather than proving an initial checkout product.
The charter is still conditional
Augustus received preliminary conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in May to establish Augustus National Bank in Dallas. The OCC decision is an important milestone, but it is not final authorization to open: the proposed bank must still meet pre-opening requirements and secure deposit insurance. Until then, the company should not be described as an operating US national bank.
That distinction shapes the round’s execution risk. A charter could give Augustus more direct control over dollar accounts, settlement and credit products than a fintech assembled entirely from partners. It also brings capital, governance, risk and supervisory obligations that software growth alone cannot solve. The $180m gives Augustus room to build the bank, continue developing Marble and serve more institutions while it works through those conditions.
Founded in Berlin in 2022 by Ferdinand Dabitz, Joshua Becker, Simon Wimmer and Peter Lieck, Augustus has since shifted its centre of gravity toward the US. Current reliable reporting identifies New York as the company headquarters, while the proposed bank would be headquartered in Dallas. The financing therefore backs both a product expansion and a regulated-institution build, with the charter process determining how much of the promised direct access Augustus can ultimately own.
