It appears that Plaid may have been better without the Visa deal after all. Since the major headline-making deal of 2020 ended, Plaid has only accelerated its growth and plans for expansion. Most recently, the company saw its valuation triple following a mammoth Series D round of funding.
2020 saw Plaid rise as one of the fintech giants that boomed during the pandemic. Plaid joined the likes of Coinbase, Robinhood, and Chime during what became a financial revolution in terms of catalyzing how personal finances are managed digitally today. Its service, aiding fintech apps in integrating easily with users’ bank accounts, grew alongside the apps it facilitated and charted record highs in annual turnover.
Despite the setback, the company appears to be better off operating independently with no shortage of funding. Its most recent capital raise, a Series D round, scooped an incredible $425 million. With this new round, the company’s valuation now sits at $13.4 billion, almost 3 times what it previously was prior to the investment. The round was led by existing investors Altimeter Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and New Enterprise Associates. New investors include Silver Lake and Ribbit Capital. The company shared that the new round will contribute toward increasing staffing to meet the company’s growing demand.
The round confirms Plaid’s solid position as a leader in what has been heralded as the “new era of finance.” Confirming this, Mary Meeker, a former tech investment banker and early investor (who sits on the fintech’s board) shared “Plaid is in a strong position to help develop the digital ecosystem that delivers the types of tools and services consumers want, at scale.” The round has minted Co-Founders, William Hockey and Zach Perret, as the latest billionaires in Silicon Valley.
With venture capitalists clamoring to pay good prices for a slice of Plaid’s pie, the question remains as to whether the company will go public, and when. As of yet, it was shared that there are no immediate public offering plans incoming.
