{"id":10486,"date":"2020-02-10T22:21:55","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T03:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/plaid-a-5-3-billion-winner\/"},"modified":"2020-02-10T22:21:55","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T03:21:55","slug":"plaid-a-5-3-billion-winner","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/plaid-a-5-3-billion-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Plaid: A $5.3 Billion Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fintech is Everywhere <\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The financial services landscape is rapidly changing. User adoption has skyrocketed in recent years. In 2019, 75% of people with internet access used a fintech application for money movement compared to just 18% in 2015. However, the financial system is historically very disjointed. Anyone who has ever waited for a few cents to be deposited into their bank account to confirm their account has been verified in the traditional way knows that this isn’t a great user experience.<\/p>\n

This is where Plaid comes in. Plaid serves as a gate-lifter in a highly fragmented industry. Their services allow users to access new financial service products including Venmo, Robinhood and Coinbase that require a link to their bank accounts. Being the go-to connector of financial services data has proven to be incredibly valuable as Visa announced it would be acquiring Plaid for $5.3 billion dollars in January 2020.<\/p>\n

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Discretely Connecting Apps with Banks<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

It might come as a surprise to discover that one in four people with a bank account in the U.S. has used Plaid\u2019s services. Flying under the radar is a key element of Plaid\u2019s strategy. Below is the interface a user sees when they add a bank account on Betterment. Although a user may believe this is an interface with Chase, their bank, in fact they are supplying their banking credentials to Plaid.<\/p>\n

Online banking credentials are some of the most sensitive data for an individual. If Plaid was not so discrete about the service they are providing, a user may be less likely to provide their banking login information to a third party they may not be familiar with.<\/p>\n

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Easy Access for Consumers <\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Plaid makes the customer experience simple for any app that requires users to connect to their bank account. In a matter of minutes, a user can now connect their bank account to many popular apps including Venmo, Chime and Betterment.<\/p>\n

Through these integrations, fintech apps can pull data on a variety of financial information for a user including:<\/p>\n