JPMorgan Bets on Plaid Months After Dimon’s Data Criticism

(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s asset-management arm invested in Plaid Inc., joining a fundraising round that previously valued the data company at $13.4 billion.

JPMorgan Private Capital Growth Equity Partners, along with American Express Co.’s venture-capital arm, invested as part of Plaid’s Series D fundraising round, the company said Tuesday. The round was originally announced in April and led by Altimeter Capital and Silver Lake Partners.

“We’re excited to work with JPMorgan and AmEx as both partners and as investors,” Plaid Chief Executive Officer Zach Perret said in an interview.

AmEx counts itself as a previous investor in Plaid. JPMorgan’s investment was overseen by Christopher Dawe, who joined the firm earlier this year from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., where he also invested in Plaid.

“Plaid has become essential fintech infrastructure, propelling a new generation of applications to market faster,” Lindsay Fitzgerald, a managing director for AmEx Ventures, said in an emailed statement. “We are thrilled to once again support Plaid’s growth.”

Plaid is a data aggregator -- popular apps such as Chime and PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Venmo rely on the firm’s connections to financial institutions to use and display consumer banking data. But, at times, these types of firms have faced criticism from banks for the ways they collect that data.

JPMorgan’s investment comes after the bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon name-checked Plaid during the firm’s earnings call in January, vowing that there’s a battle brewing with companies that “improperly use data that’s being given to them, like Plaid.”

“We’ve been focused on working with JPMorgan broadly for a long time,” Perret said, noting the two companies work together often and previously signed a data-sharing agreement. “We’ve learned a lot in these interactions and have been fortunate to be able to build a much stronger relationship.”

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