Plaid, a San Francisco-based financial technology company, is all set to expand in 3 more European nations, namely, France, Ireland, and Spain. Plaid is a technology platform focused on helping applications to connect with the users’ bank accounts. It builds a platform/application, enabling consumers and businesses to interact. The company started its European journey from the UK earlier in 2019.
Zach Perret, Co-founder and CEO, Plaid, told CNBC during an interview that the company had been fortunate enough to be on the wave of fintechs that began in the US. It had early success in the UK despite being there only for 6 months. Plaid, over 6 months in Britain, has picked up budget and accounting app clients, Cleo and Pandle, respectively. It has partnered with the challenger banks (retail banks) operating in the UK and Europe, though the company avoided disclosing the names.
Plaid recently secured funding worth $250 million in December. Investors such as Goldman Sachs, Google parent company Alphabet, Visa, and MasterCard have valued the company at $2.65 billion. The company has benefitted from the open banking rules both in the UK and the European Union, which require account transparency to regulate third party information sharing and payment initiation.
The company in September announced that it is all set to release new developer tools, which will assist the fintech in tackling the credit card debt. A fintech can retrieve real-time information about credit card accounts to help borrowers understand about different financial obligations.
The company has built integrations with the largest financial institutions in Ireland, France, and Spain. It offers front-end module links, which will be available for French, Spanish, and English depending on the need. Europe is one of the most open markets when it comes to fintech regulations, making it one of the most lucrative options.
