Crypto bank Augustus completes $180 million financing round, led by Tiger Global.

Augustus, a startup building a federally chartered clearing bank, announced it has raised $180 million to expand its U.S. dollar payment infrastructure amid stablecoins reshaping the global financial system. The funding round values Augustus at $1 billion. Tiger Global Management led the round, with participation from investors including Hummingbird Ventures, QED Investors, and founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle, and Deel. The financing comes as banks, fintech firms, and crypto companies race to upgrade cross-border payment infrastructure. While much market focus has centered on stablecoin issuers, Augustus is targeting a less-discussed but critical segment of the financial system: the correspondent banking network. Augustus CEO Ferdinand Dabitz said in an interview: "We believe the distribution of financial services has hit a bottleneck at the clearing bank level." He pointed out that traditional clearing systems are "slow, not available around the clock, take two days to settle, and are closed on weekends."