Data Aggregator Plaid Hops the PondData Aggregator Plaid Hops the Pond
Firm expands into the UK fintech market.
The U.S. data aggregation technology company Plaid is opening a third office; this one across the pond in London, adding to those it already has in New York and Salt Lake City. While it will not be a huge presence in terms of employees—the company plans to hire 25 people for the London location by 2020, according to a prepared statement—it represents a beachhead into the U.K. and likely the European market.
As part of its announcement, the firm noted it had already integrated with eight of the U.K.’s largest banks and neobanks and had landed two two customers across the Atlantic, naming one of them, the money-management app Emma.
This is just the latest move in Plaid’s plans for expansion, having acquired the more wealth management-focused data aggregator Quovo in January and having begun working with Canadian institutions and startups in 2018. Plaid has seen its valuation skyrocket since 2016, culminating in investor Mary Meeker leading a 2018 funding that valued the firm at $2.65 billion, up from $200 million just two years prior.
