ADVERTISEMENT

Kleiner's Mary Meeker Is Said to Bid Up Valuation of Fintech Startup Plaid

Kleiner's Mary Meeker Is Said to Bid Up Valuation of Fintech Startup Plaid

(Bloomberg) -- Plaid Technologies Inc. is in talks to raise $200 million and the valuation of the deal is rising as venture investors vie to bankroll the startup.

San Francisco-based Plaid is weighing a range of funding offers, including one from Kleiner Perkins Cauflield & Byers that values the financial-technology startup at as much as $3 billion, a person familiar with the matter said. Another investor valued the company at about $2 billion earlier this week, but that was eclipsed by Kleiner’s offer, according to a different person familiar with the situation. The people asked not to be identified discussing private negotiations.

The Kleiner deal is being run by Mary Meeker’s growth team -- the same group that recently said it’s leaving to start a new venture capital firm. The Plaid funding is likely one of the last deals involving Meeker’s departing team, leaving Kleiner making smaller bets on earlier stage companies.

Plaid raised $44 million in a round led by Goldman Sachs in 2016. If the new round closes, it could triple the startup’s valuation. Plaid and Kleiner declined to comment.

Plaid makes developer tools that power a range of financial apps and services, including Venmo and Coinbase. Its technology lets those companies and others quickly and securely see client balances and authenticate accounts.

However, the topic of data aggregation in finance is controversial. This summer, Capital One Financial Corp. began limiting how account data flows to outside apps like Plaid.

To contact the reporters on this story: Julie Verhage in New York at jverhage2@bloomberg.net;Lizette Chapman in San Francisco at lchapman19@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz, Alistair Barr

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.