Plaid raises $425m in Series D fundraising

Fintech start-up Plaid has raised $425 million in a Series D financing round supported by new and existing investors.

New investors Altimeter Capital, Silver Lake, and Ribbit Capital joined existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise Associates, Spark Capital and Thrive Capital in raising funding for Plaid.

Zach Perret, co-founder and CEO of Plaid, said it plans to use the funding to scale its platform to support the growth in fintech and enable the next generation of digital financial services.

In a blog post, Perret wrote: “Looking ahead, Plaid is focused on creating a single, integrated platform focused on helping innovators build digital financial products.

“Doing so requires scaling to meet the increased use of fintech, expanding globally to meet international demand, and delivering an expanded set of platform products to our customers.”

He continued: “This will include continued investment in APIs that help people connect a complete view of their finances, as well as tools and services to support enhanced privacy, personalization, decisioning, and automation.”

Earlier this year, the acquisition of Plaid by Visa for $5.3 billion, which had been announced in January 2020 and was later cleared by the Competition and Markets Authority, was called off.

The deal was terminated after the Department of Justice filed suit to block the deal.

In a blog post published in January 2021, Perret wrote: “Unfortunately, the pace of a multi-year regulatory review is not compatible with the fast-moving realities of a startup – and delaying close another year or more is not in the best interest of our customers, the financial system, or consumers themselves.”

Written by Ellie Duncan, head of content at Open Banking Expo