Plaid Inc unveiled participation of Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc as strategic investors in its Series C of funding round in December, in which the financial technology firm came raising $250 million.
The fintech company’s technology helps people connect their bank accounts with mobile apps like Venmo and in its last week statement announcing the deal with Visa and Mastercard, the fintech startup did not disclose any financial details or amount of the investments made by the two payment system firms.
Financial services sector worldwide is passing through a phase of digital revolution and fintech market came rising as leading player in that phase, said Zach Perret, Chief Executive Officer of Plaid, in the statement adding that Plaid looks forward to partner with Visa and Mastercard at our common commerce and financial services goals.
Plaid, which was founded in 2013, has raised about $310 million in funding rounds with financial giants like American Express Co, Citigroup Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc at the back of it.
Plaid said that it now employs nearly 400 employees in four cities whereas in the Series C funding round in December led by venture capitalist Mary Meeker, the fintech startup was reportedly got a valuation of about $2.65 billion.
The firm though shared little details about the impact of credit card giants into its business, but said that at the common point of data access and payments, it will collaborate with Visa and Mastercard.
Expanding its data network remained the point of Plaid’s focus this year and the company thinks that the deal with Visa and Mastercard would help it accelerating those efforts, Plaid said in the statement.
The investment would allow Visa bringing its brand, reliability, security and global scale to the emerging fintech community, Visa’s Bill Sheedy said.
Technology is making all aspects of life easier, said Sherri Haymond, Mastercard’s executive vice president of digital partnerships.
