Plaid

Plaid is a San Francisco financial data company founded in 2013 by Zach Perret and William Hockey. In the US it is best known as the layer that links a consumer's bank account to apps such as budgeting tools, brokerages and payment services, and its website claims more than 12,000 connected institutions across 20 countries. Visa agreed to buy Plaid for $5.3 billion in 2020 but walked away after the US Department of Justice sued to block the deal.

Its payment products differ on each side of the Atlantic. In the US, Plaid Transfer moves money over ACH, Same Day ACH, RTP, FedNow and wire for businesses that pass an application. Marketplaces and money transfer apps are excluded, and firms that already have a payment processor are steered to Plaid Auth, which verifies account and routing numbers so the processor can debit them. In Europe, Payment Initiation reaches 18 markets over Faster Payments, SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Instant, with variable recurring payments in the UK only. An optional virtual account add-on holds incoming funds and handles refunds and payouts.

The UK business, Plaid Financial Ltd, is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference 804718, and the EU business, Plaid B.V., is supervised by De Nederlandsche Bank under registration R179714. Plaid publishes three plan types, from pay-as-you-go to custom volume deals, but Transfer is priced on request and the pricing page shows no per-payment figures.

Few merchants come to Plaid for a checkout alone. It fits fintechs, lenders, investment apps and subscription businesses that want account linking, verification and bank payments from one integration, through web, iOS, Android and React Native SDKs or a hosted link. Canada is covered for data and account verification but not by either payment product.