Augustus, a startup developing a federally chartered clearing bank for fintechs and financial institutions, has raised $180 million to expand its dollar payment infrastructure as stablecoins reshape global finance.
The funding round values the company at $1 billion. Tiger Global led the investment, with participation from Hummingbird, QED Investors, and the founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle, and Deel, according to a Tuesday press release.
The capital injection arrives as banks, fintechs, and crypto firms race to modernize the infrastructure underpinning cross-border payments. While much of the industry focus remains on stablecoin issuers, Augustus is targeting a less visible but critical segment of the financial system: correspondent banking.
Reimagining Correspondent Banking
“We think distribution breaks at the clearing bank layer,” CEO Ferdinand Dabitz told CoinDesk in an interview. He argued that legacy clearing systems are “slow, unavailable, take two days to settle, and close on the weekends.”
The firm is building what Dabitz describes as an “AI-native” clearing bank architected around stablecoins, programmable money, and continuous settlement.
Augustus does not intend to issue its own stablecoin, Dabitz clarified. Instead, the company aims to supply the banking infrastructure that enables financial institutions to move funds seamlessly between traditional payment rails and blockchain networks.
