Mercury CEO, Immad Akhund Says AI Is Overhyped and Overvalued

Immad Akhund has backed over 350 startups since 2016, but he insists he didn’t start investing until he could afford to lose money. “This is a rich person’s game, sadly,” the Mercury CEO said on Harry Stebbings’ podcast earlier this week. “Doing one or two angel investments won’t make a difference, you need to do at least 20 or 30 to learn, iterate, and have any real return.”

Now, nearly a decade into angel investing, with hits like Rippling, Truebill, and Airtable under his belt, Akhund is turning a deeply personal investing practice into a more structured vehicle. His new $26 million fund, quietly closed in three weeks, will back around 60 early-stage startups with average checks of $150,000. “I’ve always loved helping founders—this just lets me do it more meaningfully,” he said.

1/ Excited to share I’ve raised a $26M venture fund to back early-stage founders.@Mercury is still my 100% focus but I’m formalizing my angel investing in this fund.🧵 https://t.co/yls6cLs4vF

— immad (@immad) May 12, 2025

Though Mercury remains his main focus, Akhund sees investing as symbiotic, not distracting. “From the first 30 alpha customers of Mercury, 100% were companies I had invested in,” he noted. “My investing has helped Mercury, and Mercury helps my investing.”