Report: Half of US Consumers Use Plaid’s Payments Tech
Plaid’s revenue reportedly rose more than 25% in 2024 as more consumers encountered its tech.
In fact, at least half of all Americans used the company’s services in some way, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday (Jan. 14), citing a source familiar with the matter.
The report notes that the company’s growth occurred despite an otherwise harsh funding and borrowing environment for FinTechs after interest rates rose following the COVID pandemic. Use of Plaid’s identity verification product jumped more than 400% last year, the report said, while use of its payment product more than tripled.
“There’s just this truly renewed sense of optimism going into 2025,” Plaid CEO Zach Perret told Bloomberg. “It’s way more fun to operate in FinTech spring than it was to operate in FinTech winter.”
The report notes that banks — after years of only grudgingly working with FinTech rivals — have now seen the benefit of collaborating with the likes of Plaid as their customers seek financial products online.
In fact, Plaid last year teamed with PNC to let that bank’s customers more securely share their data with third-party financial apps and services. The data access agreement between the companies allows PNC customers to safely and securely grant their financial data to Plaid-powered apps and services.
Plaid, which recently opened a new office in Raleigh, North Carolina, said the number of banks that became customers surged by 50% last year, the Bloomberg report said.
The news comes as the world of bank-FinTech partnerships faces some upheaval, as PYMNTS wrote last month, with the potential for a new regulatory regime in Washington.
In an interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster on the topic, Ingo Payments CEO Drew Edwards said the main drivers prioritized by investors and startups in this space have been “the customer experience and customer acquisition.”
The key strategy has focused on taking down barriers to growth while making it quick and easy to set up accounts, with less of a focus on the principles of safe banking.
Companies that focus only on growth and customer acquisition have struggled, he said, while those focused on the tenets of safe banking will enjoy healthy customer acquisition.
“The operating rules that keep you out of trouble and mean success versus failure are different now,” Edwards told PYMNTS, adding that “what’s changing are the rules around how banks play with FinTechs.”
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