Plaid, a San Francisco-based app programming platform for banks and other financial services providers, raised $250 million in Series C funding at what Axios has learned is a $2.65 billion valuation. Kleiner Perkins Growth led, and was joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures and return backers Goldman Sachs, NEA and Spark Capital.
Why it matters: It's around a 10x valuation bump from where Plaid last raised in 2016, representing how Plaid has become integral infrastructure for top digital finance companies like Acorns, Coinbase, Robinhood and Venmo. As Axios' Kia Kokalitcheva notes, "Plaid is to finance apps what Stripe is to e-commerce."