Fintech infrastructure company Plaid revealed on Thursday that it has completed a new fundraise to provide liquidity to employees at a valuation of $8 billion.
That valuation is up 31% from the $6.1 billion the San Francisco-based company was valued at in April 2025 when it completed a separate tender offer. At its peak in 2021, Plaid was valued at $13.4 billion.
Founded in 2013 by Zach Perret and William Hockey, Plaid got its start as a company that connects consumer bank accounts to financial applications. It has since gradually expanded its offerings to include lending, identity verification, credit reporting, anti-fraud and payments.
The company has raised about $1.3 billion in funding over its lifetime and, at one point, was set to be acquired by Visa before that deal fell apart due to regulatory concerns.
Plaid’s backers include Citi Ventures, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Silver Lake, Ribbit Capital, Spark Capital, AmEx Ventures, BlackRock and Fidelity, among others.
Its customers include Citibank, Amex, Robinhood, Coinbase, The RealReal, Block and Affirm.
New AI focus
The increase in valuation, the company says, “reflects momentum from the past year, as well as Plaid’s increasing relevance in the age of AI.”
Last week, Plaid said it was entering a new phase of development centered on artificial intelligence. It unveiled a new foundational model as part of its goal to power the next phase of “intelligent finance.”
It added: “As AI penetrates financial services, Plaid’s relevance compounds. Last year, AI firms made up 20% of the companies onboarded as new customers.”
Tender offers have become more common as an increasing number of startups choose to stay private longer. Earlier this week, payments giant Stripe announced its own tender offer at a $159 billion valuation. Generative AI company Anthropic is also believed to be working on a tender offer at a valuation of at least $350 billion.
Total global funding to VC-backed financial technology startups totaled $51.8 billion in 2025, per Crunchbase data. That’s a fairly significant — 27% — increase from 2024’s total of $40.8 billion raised.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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