Fintech Firm Plaid Gets A $2.6B Valuation With Strategic Investment From Mastercard And Visa

Plaid, a decentralized finance firm, announced on their official blog Visa and MasterCard have made a strategic investment in the blockchain-based company. The US-based company promises users a “future of digital financial services” by providing a platform for developers to create an accessible financial ecosystem for all.

MasterCard and Visa invest in Plaid

In a blog post published on Sept 17, Plaid announced the strategic partnership with MasterCard and Visa that saw the online payment giants make an investment in the firm. The crypto unicorn – with a valuation of over $2.65 billion USD following a series C funding round that raised $250 million – claims 80% of the fintech firms rely on its API.

The announcement reads,

“Today, we are excited to announce that MasterCard and Visa have made strategic investments in Plaid. We have long been inspired by the work these networks did to digitize commerce, and hold this as an example for what we hope to accomplish in financial services.”

A Future in Digital Payments

The executive vice president of Visa’s strategy group, Bill Sheedy spoke to Fortune on the investment in Plaid. Sheedy said,

“We’re really excited about working with [Plaid] to enhance payment experiences globally. The alignment with Plaid’s target customers, and what they’re doing in terms of building value-added services on top of financial data, seems like a strong strategic move [for Visa].”

MasterCard’s executive vice president of digital partnerships, Sherri Haymond, praised the collaboration stating the company will benefit integrating digital innovation in a statement. MasterCard recently joined the R3 Corda consortium with an aim to boost global financial trade through blockchain.