In a bold push to modernize banking for startups, technologists, and frontier industries, Palmer Luckey’s stealth fintech venture, Erebor, has emerged from the shadows with a $225 million funding round backed by major institutional investors. Positioned at the convergence of finance, defense, and deep tech, Erebor aims to build a next-generation bank engineered for the speed and complexity of modern innovation economies.

A New Financial Infrastructure for the Builders of Tomorrow

Founded by Palmer Luckey—the visionary behind Oculus VR and Anduril—and co-led by Jacob Hirshman and Owen Rapaport, Erebor is designed to serve the unmet financial needs of tech founders, R&D-driven startups, defense contractors, and crypto-native ventures. The startup is developing a digital-first, compliance-native banking platform that integrates treasury services, venture debt, embedded finance APIs, and crypto interoperability.

Unlike legacy institutions constrained by legacy infrastructure and risk aversion, Erebor is purpose-built to support high-risk, high-velocity industries—the very sectors shaping the future of global technology, security, and commerce.

Backing from Elite Capital and Policy Circles

The company’s $225 million capital raise includes participation from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz alumni, ex-CIA leadership, and prominent institutional investors from both Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Erebor’s board reportedly includes executives with deep experience in finance, defense policy, and cybersecurity, underscoring its unique cross-sector value proposition.

This isn’t just another neobank—it’s an intelligence-grade financial entity for the innovation elite, with the capital, talent, and regulatory insight to operate at global scale.

Filling the Void Left by Legacy Institutions

Erebor’s emergence is timely. Following the collapse of innovation-aligned banks like Silicon Valley Bank and growing frustration with slow-moving regulatory bottlenecks, there’s a clear demand for a high-trust, high-tech banking partner that understands the asymmetric needs of early-stage, IP-heavy companies.

From defense startups needing milestone-triggered financing, to crypto teams requiring compliant fiat on/off-ramps, Erebor plans to offer modular banking infrastructure built from the ground up—with API-first logic, built-in KYC/AML frameworks, and real-time capital visibility.

Rethinking Risk for High-Growth Industries

Erebor’s foundational thesis is that risk itself must be redefined. Traditional underwriting metrics don’t apply to zero-to-one technologies. Instead, Erebor combines technical due diligence, network scoring, and sector intelligence to underwrite innovation, not just cash flow.

Whether it’s an AI lab building advanced robotics or a biotech team mapping neural systems, Erebor’s tools and capital stack are designed to fuel breakthroughs, not slow them down.

Strategic Vision: A Banking OS for the 21st Century

More than just a financial services provider, Erebor envisions itself as an operating system for capital orchestration—handling treasury, vendor payments, grants management, equity lines, and even blockchain-native assets from a single platform. The ambition is clear: build a financial layer that matches the speed of software, the precision of defense, and the scale of global infrastructure.