Plaid, a fintech startup that connects financial institutions, is announcing its latest funding round on Thursday, valuing the company at $6.1 billion. While the new mark represents a steep decline from Plaid’s peak valuation of $13.4 billion in April 2021, a year after a failed acquisition by Visa, the round still reflects a rebound for the startup, which struggled as part of a sector-wide “fintech winter” over the past few years.
The new funding, totaling over $575 million, comes partly in the form of a tender offer, meaning investors are buying existing shares to provide liquidity to Plaid employees. Franklin Templeton is leading the deal, with participation from Fidelity, BlackRock, and existing investors NEA and Ribbit Capital.
“Every company has to deal with some of the macro conditions,” said NEA partner Rick Yang, who joined Plaid’s board as part of its Series A in 2014. “Nothing changed in the longer-term mission of where we were trying to go. That’s the nice thing, that the company can be heads down and focus on that despite all the noise that’s happening in the markets.”
Fintech summer
Founded in 2013 by Zach Perret and William Hockey, Plaid was one of the buzziest startups during the last fintech boom, helping to connect bank accounts with financial apps like Robinhood and Venmo. Plaid received a $5.3 billion acquisition offer by Visa in early 2020, though the deal was scuttled following a lawsuit by the Justice Department.
Despite the setback, Plaid continued to grow, raising a $425 million in funding just a year later at a $13.4 billion valuation as the fintech sector continued to explode. The round represented a high point for the startup, however, which suffered amid the broader pullback in 2022 and 2023, resulting in Plaid dropping in valuation and imposing layoffs as many of its clients saw decreased demand. Yang attributed the decreased valuation to investors’ shifting focus on revenue multiples.
“The business has grown substantially since the company raised that round, margins have improved, and the customer base has gotten even better and diversified,” Yang told Fortune.
While the outlook for fintech has improved, the industry still faces headwinds as uncertain macro conditions affect consumer usage. But Wall Street’s embrace of financial technology, and Plaid’s position sitting firmly between traditional financial institutions and Silicon Valley, has allowed the startup to surge, especially as President Trump’s deregulatory approach has increased optimism around increased M&A activity and public offerings—a boon for tech investing. In a February interview with Fortune, Perret predicted an imminent “fintech summer.”
Plaid’s latest funding round comes on the heels of new business lines launched by the company, including anti-fraud products and customer credit data for lenders, and as the firm enjoys record revenue. Yang said that Plaid’s business has “really transformed” from a product standpoint, helping to broaden its appeal to a diverse base of customers, from traditional fintechs and banks to companies like Carvana and Google.
The new funding round will enable an employee tender offer, and also be used to address tax implications related to expiring restricted stock units (RSUs). Freya Petersen, Plaid’s head of corporate affairs, said that Plaid has no plans for further raises ahead of a potential IPO, telling Fortune that the company is “on track for consistent profitability.”
While Yang argued that Plaid would be a “great” public company, he said there are no imminent plans for an IPO. “There’s no rush for this company to be public,” he told Fortune.
