Augustus raises $180 million Series B at $1 billion valuation to build the 'Global Dollar Bank'

VC giant Tiger Global has led banking startup Augustus’ $180 million Series B financing round, with participation from Hummingbird, QED and the founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle and Deel, according to an announcement on Tuesday. 

Augustus is a U.S. fintech building a modern, federally chartered national bank — what it calls the "Global Dollar Bank" — designed to give international fintechs and banks direct access to USD accounts and payment rails.

Part of its offering involves stablecoins, alongside its support for traditional payment rails including SWIFT, ACH and SEPA, according to a press release. Augustus’ "core banking platform," called Marble, offers round-the-clock settlement times and uses AI for other features.

Instead of routing through layers of traditional correspondent banks, Augustus offers an API-first platform for virtual accounts and transactions.

Augustus, now valued at $1 billion, plans to use the capital to expand its service offerings to fintechs and banks in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, according to the announcement. It has raised $210 million to date.

Balaji Srinivasan was named alongside additional investors like Soma Capital, Road Capital Management, CMT Digital, Brevan Howard Digital and Variant, in the announcement.

The firm is part of a wave of conditional national bank charter recipients from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency during Trump’s second term. Several stablecoin businesses, including Circle, have applied for OCC approval, and many have been conditionally approved. 

Payward, parent company of Kraken, one of Augustus’ clients, according to the announcement, has filed an application with the OCC for a national trust company charter. Kraken was also notably the first digital asset firm to receive a Federal Reserve Master Account.

Augustus notes it has a "mission to dollarize the world." Many analysts note that the rise of U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoins has also extended the reach of the dollar. In the announcement, Augustus pointed to the digital yuan CBDC and the BRICS currency alignment as potential greenback competitors. 

"We started Augustus with a simple thesis: the Dollar is the greatest product in the world, but its distribution is fundamentally broken," Augustus CEO and co-founder Ferdinand Dabitz said. "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."