Plaid could be raising ‘hundreds of millions’ at $13B valuation

Data aggregator Plaid, which earlier this year pulled away from a $5.3B deal to merge with Visa amid a Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust lawsuit, is in the process of securing further funding at a $13B valuation, a report citing unnamed sources claims.

Why should we care?
The new funding round in the works will reportedly be led by hedge fund-turned venture capital firm Altimeter Capital. Many existing investors are expected to participate in a round that could raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Further to the unraveling of a deal that would have allowed Visa to acquire Plaid earlier this year, data aggregators are seen as hot funding targets in the wake of a rush of digital financial services adoption during the pandemic. As it became clear the Visa-Plaid deal was not going forward, some industry observers pondered whether a $5.3B price tag for Plaid was too low. Reports circulated that the Visa-Plaid deal went sour not because of fallout from the DOJ lawsuit, but over questions regarding a valuation that was too low (Plaid never confirmed these reports). Regardless, it’s hardly a secret that Plaid may be on the hunt for more funding, a stop along a possible trajectory to go public. Ryan Gilbert, a partner at Propel Venture Partners and CEO of special purpose acquisition company FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corporation, suggested in a recent interview that Plaid has many potential backers. “There are more than two fistfuls of very large funds – venture funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, et cetera – that will jump in,” he said. “They’re going to have this huge investor demand for a company that is battle ready, that has experienced the ups and downs of a failed M&A, but has grown significantly over the past year.” Plaid’s effort to secure additional funding, led by Altimeter Capital, was also cited in a March report that suggested the company was raising $600M at a valuation of between $10B and $15B.