Plaid Raises $575 Million At $6 Billion Valuation Half Its 2021 Peak But Still Moving Forward

Ever connected your bank account to apps like Venmo, Robinhood, or Coinbase? Then you must have already met Plaid, even if you didn’t realize it. This San Francisco-based fintech infrastructure company powers the connection between financial data and the digital tools that help a user manage it.

Founded in 2012 by Zach Perret and William Hockey, Plaid began with a simple goal to make it easier for people to interact with their finances digitally. What started as a tool for personal finance insights quickly morphed into the digital plumbing behind modern financial apps offering APIs that allow developers to securely access consumer banking data with just a few lines of code.

The Deal That Wasn’t 

Plaid made headlines in 2020 when Visa announced plans to acquire the startup for $5.3 billion. The deal, however, fell apart in early 2021 due to antitrust concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice. Regulators feared the acquisition would stifle competition in the fast-growing fintech space. Instead of seeing this as a setback, Plaid treated it as fuel for the next phase of growth and never looked back.

Plaid acts as the connective tissue between banks and fintech apps. It provides a secure, standardized way to access financial data everything from account balances and transaction histories to direct-deposit verification and income reports. It’s what makes instant bank verification possible in seconds rather than days.

With over 12,000 financial institutions and 8,000+ apps in its network, Plaid is quietly building the rails on which the future of finance runs.

AI Is Quietly Running the Show

Plaid uses AI and machine learning to enhance fraud detection, automate identity verification, and better categorize transactions — key features that make their APIs smarter and safer. As financial data grows more complex, AI helps Plaid power cleaner, faster, and more reliable integrations for app developers and consumers alike.

Plaid has charted an impressive funding trajectory over the years. In 2016, the company raised $44 million in a Series B round led by Goldman Sachs. Two years later, in 2018, Plaid secured $250 million in Series C funding from Index Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, bringing its valuation to $2.65 billion. The momentum continued into 2021, with a $425 million Series D round led by Altimeter Capital, which pushed the company’s valuation to a staggering $13.4 billion. 

Most recently, Plaid raised $575 million in a round led by Franklin Templeton alongside Fidelity Management and Research, and others including existing Plaid investors NEA and Ribbit Capital. 

Why a Down Round Isn’t a Downer

Although this latest round brought its valuation down to $6.1 billion, it was a strategic move focused on stock option conversions and providing liquidity for employees, reflecting a maturing company prioritizing internal health over hyper-growth.

Perret said, “This fundraise comes on the heels of a substantial growth year, which saw a meaningful expansion in our product suite and a big upswing in the number of enterprises building with Plaid.”

The fund will be used to cover tax withholding obligations for employees due to the conversion of expiring RSUs to shares, and to provide some liquidity to our current team members.

Plaid has quietly become the backbone of the modern financial app ecosystem, powering everything from budgeting tools to investment platforms. By offering secure, real-time access to users’ financial data, it enables thousands of companies to connect their apps and services directly to bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and more.

It plays a critical role in the user experience of some of the most recognizable names in fintech. Investment and savings platforms like Robinhood, Acorns, Ellevest, Qapital, and Digit use Plaid to authenticate accounts and help users manage their finances more intelligently. In the banking world, digital-first neobanks such as Chime, Varo, MoneyLion, and M1 Finance rely on Plaid’s APIs to provide seamless money movement and account insights.

Personal finance apps, including Rocket Money, YNAB (You Need a Budget), Albert, and Pillar use Plaid to analyze spending, track bills, and offer users a clearer picture of their financial health. Payments giants like Venmo, Wise, Stripe, and WorldRemit also integrate Plaid to verify users and enable smoother transactions.

In the lending and credit space, companies like SoFi, Avant, Figure, and Petal tap into Plaid for income verification and risk assessment, while business finance tools such as Expensify, Fundbox, and Bench use it to streamline expense management and financial reporting.