Plaid Gets Strategic Funding From Visa And Mastercard

Plaid Gets Strategic Investment From Visa And Mastercard

Plaid, which focuses on APIs, said on Mon. (Sept. 16) that it has received strategic investments from Mastercard and Visa. The companies said in the announcement that the amounts were undisclosed.

The investments were part of a previously disclosed $250 million Series C funding round that took place last year. The total to date, according to Plaid, comes to $310 million, with an implied valuation of $2.6 billion.

In an emailed statement, Plaid said it works with more than 15,000 banks and “powers 80 percent of the largest FinTechs to deliver better digital services to their customers. … As a network-based company, there is a lot of opportunity and potential to align with both Visa and Mastercard, moving forward, worldwide.”

Plaid said consumers’ rapid rate of digital payments adoption is evident in a number of stats, including the fact that Venmo has more than 40 million users, and also that so far this year, investors have put $12 billion into FinTechs.

In commentary sent to PYMNTS from Plaid, CEO Zach Perret said that “we draw inspiration from the work that the networks have done and look forward to collaborating with Visa and Mastercard at the intersection of commerce and financial services. We are excited to be working with these two foundational networks to push a digitized financial system forward.”

Bill Sheedy, senior vice president of the strategy group at Visa, noted that “partnerships are core to Visa’s business model. Visa is focused on developing partnerships with FinTechs like Plaid who are helping to expand access to digital payments while opening new acceptance points around the world. Visa’s investment in Plaid is the latest way we  are bringing the global scale, brand, security and reliability of Visa to the FinTech community.”

In a separate statement provided to PYMNTS, Sherri Haymond, executive vice president of digital partnerships at Mastercard, said that “technology is making life easier in all walks of life. With greater access and activation of their own financial data, people will be able to make additional choices on a range of investments and activities.”

In recent news tied to the FinTech, Plaid said that a new service launched in May called Plaid Direct enables “two-way connectivity across the financial ecosystem and makes it easier for consumers to move money between their accounts – whether it’s in a neobank, FinTech or big box bank account.”