Augustus raises $180 million Series B at $1 billion valuation

Augustus said it raised a $180 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation in a round led by Tiger Global, with participation from Hummingbird, QED, and founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle, and Deel. The company said the funding will support its effort to expand direct access to dollar accounts and payment rails for financial institutions through a modern, federally chartered bank, with a focus on fintechs and banks in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Augustus says it aims to build a federally chartered clearing bank linking traditional payment rails and stablecoin networks, but does not plan to issue its own stablecoin. Instead, it says it wants to connect institutions to legacy payment rails to support 24/7 transfers and faster cross-border settlements. Augustus also said it already provides euro clearing through a regulated Finnish entity that processes billions of euros annually. The announcement follows Augustus' conditional approval in May for a U.S. national bank charter from the OCC (U.S. bank regulator), making it the eighth bank to receive such approval since 2010. Augustus said its API-first platform offers operating and FBO accounts (for-benefit-of accounts) with named virtual accounts, and supports transactions through Swift, ACH, SEPA, and stablecoins. It also plans further investment in Marble, its proprietary core banking platform, which it said is designed to speed settlement and provide 24/7/365 availability by using AI across back-office operations. Augustus, founded in 2022, said it has now raised $210 million and is already processing billions for customers including Kraken.