Augustus Bags $180 Million in Series B Funding Led by Tiger Global

In Series B funding round, Augustus has raised $180 million, reaching a $1 billion valuation. The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Hummingbird, QED Investors, and the founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle, and Deel.  

The new funds will be used to drive Augustus' goal to give financial institutions direct access to dollar accounts and rails, alongside serving leading banks and fintech firms in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Augustus recently became the eighth bank since 2010 to receive conditional approval for a US national bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The approval positions the company to build federally regulated banking infrastructure in the United States from scratch.

Its API-first platform allows customers to bypass intermediary banks and fintech providers by offering operating and FBO (For Benefit Of) accounts with named virtual accounts. Through a single platform, institutions can transact with both first and third parties using Swift, ACH, SEPA, and stablecoin payment rails.

The company is also investing in its proprietary core banking platform, Marble, to enable faster settlements, real-time fund availability, and AI-powered back-office operations.

The expansion comes as the global payments landscape evolves. Europe is exploring ways to reduce dependence on US payment infrastructure, while China's Digital Yuan initiative and Russia's proposed BRICS Pay system are challenging the dominance of the US dollar in international finance.

Ferdinand Dabitz, CEO and co-founder of Augustus, highlighted that, "We started Augustus with a simple thesis: the Dollar is the greatest product in the world but its distribution is fundamentally broken. This financing lets us execute on our mission to provide high-quality dollar access to international fintechs and banks. It's time to dollarize the world."

Nigel Morris, co-founder of Capital One and Managing Partner at QED Investors, added: "Correspondent banking is the last remaining part of the bank stack that hasn't been challenged yet by fintechs. Global fintechs and banks have been left either with slow, low-tech incumbent correspondent banks, or middleware fintech providers. Augustus solves this by combining cutting-edge technology with a real bank charter, providing international financial institutions with a modern, direct dollar clearing platform."