Open Banking Fintech Plaid is reportedly in the process of closing financing at around a $13 billion valuation.
Plaid’s investment round will be led by Altimeter Capital, according to Bloomberg which cited “people” familiar with the matter.
Many of the Fintech firm’s current investors will be taking part (or at least are expected to) in the latest round that may allow Plaid to acquire hundreds of millions of dollars, the sources claim. Investors with major stakes reportedly include NEA, Spark Capital, Index Ventures and Kleiner Perkins.
Fintechs have notably been a really hot market segment for M&As and IPOs lately. This key trend has accelerated dramatically with the rise of digital commerce in a post-COVID environment.
San Francisco-headquartered Plaid aims to connect widely-used Fintech apps such as Venmo to clients’ data in the banking system. Plaid has over 4,000 clients that include major tech giants such as Microsoft and Google. Plaid has managed to work with leading financial investors including the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Plaid was able to reach a $5.3 billion agreement which would have led to its acquisition by payments giant Visa. However, the planned deal had to be abandoned in January 2021 after the US Department of Justice moved towards blocking the transaction, while citing antitrust issues.
A Plaid senior manager had stated that the firm aims to furhter scale its European operations. Keith Grose, Head of the firm’s global business, noted that the firm intends to almost double the size of its European operations.
As reported recently, digital brokerage solution provider DriveWealth has joined forces with Plaid to enable mutual customers to simplify online investment account funding through one API integration.
Plaid has also announced the inaugural cohort of five early-stage Fintech startups for FinRise, which is Plaid’s incubator program to empower early-stage entrepreneurs that are Black, Indigenous or People of Color.