Augustus, a 25-year-old CEO's AI-powered stablecoin bank, receives rare OCC charter and raises $40 million

Augustus, founded in 2022, received a national bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency—only the eighth firm to receive such a charter from the OCC since 2010. The bank raised $40 million from Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures and Creandum, and from founders of Ramp, Deel, and Circle.

The bank operates a clearing system built on code designed to interact with AI agents, replacing the legacy correspondent banking model where intermediary bank employees must approve cross-border transactions during business hours across time zones. Augustus already holds payments licenses in Europe and processes billions of euros while growing 10x year over year.

CEO Ferdinand Dabitz, 25, aims to modernize cross-border payments infrastructure around stablecoins and AI rather than humans and paper systems. Augustus currently has staff in New York and Dallas, and plans to expand its U.S. presence following the charter approval.