Augustus, a startup building what it calls the Global Dollar Bank, has raised $180 million in a Series B funding round at a $1 billion valuation. Tiger Global led the round, with Hummingbird, QED and a roster of fintech founders including those behind Nubank, Ramp, Circle and Deel. The round is a sharp step up from the $20 million Series A that Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures led in 2023. The more consequential detail sits underneath the funding. In May the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted Augustus preliminary conditional approval for a full service national bank charter.
That distinction matters. A wave of digital asset firms has collected national trust charters over the past year or so, but a trust charter is a limited instrument. Augustus is pursuing the full thing, a national bank that can take deposits, lend, carry FDIC insurance and, most significantly, hold a Federal Reserve master account. Fewer than 10 such charters have been granted since 2010. A direct account at the Fed is what would let Augustus clear US dollars itself rather than renting access from correspondent banks.
The company has been operating for longer than the US ambition suggests. Founded in 2022 as Ivy, it built a European business providing crypto on and off ramps, with payments run through Ivy Pay Oy, an authorized payment institution licensed by Finland’s financial regulator. That regulated European subsidiary is already live with euro clearing and is the entity that serves the exchange Kraken today.
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