Fintech startup Plaid raises $425M Series D round at $13 billion valuation in first funding after a scrapped $5.3 billion merger with Visa

In January 2020, we wrote about Plaid after payment giant Visa agreed to buy Plaid for $5.3 billion. As we later learned, the Department of Justice (DOJ) later sued to block the deal alleging that it would create a monopoly and limit competition in the payments industry. The deal fell through and Visa scraped the deal a few months later.

Over a year later, Plaid announced this morning it has raised a whopping $425 million in Series D funding led by Altimeter Capital with participation from new investors, Silver Lake and Ribbit Capital. Earlier investors Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and New Enterprise Associates also participated in the round.

Plaid’s products enable consumers to conveniently share their financial information with thousands of apps and services such as Acorns, Betterment, Chime, Transferwise, and Venmo. Consumers rely on these apps and services to help plan their spending, increase their savings and monitor their investments. For example, when a user sets up a Venmo account, it is Plaid that enables the user to link their bank account to their Venmo account.

Founded in 2012 by William Hockey and Zachary Perret, the San Francisco, California-based Plaid provides companies the tools and access needed for the development of a digitally-enabled financial system. The startup makes it easier and safer for developers — from the smallest startups to the largest financial institutions — to build innovative financial services and applications. Before this acquisition, Plaid has raised a total of $353.3M in funding over 6 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Dec 11, 2018, from a Series C round.