Plaid launches payment programme in collaboration with Checkout.com, Square, Railsbank and others

In the ten months since its failed $5.3bn takeover bid from Visa, Plaid has gone from strength to strength.

Now, the financial API provider is stepping into the payments ring, launching its own payment partner ecosystem with a host of big names in fintech.

Plaid has teamed up with the likes of Checkout.com, Square, Railsbank, Marqueta, Silicon Valley Bank and Currencycloud—which was recently acquired by Visa for £700m.

“Many of the fastest-growing fintechs globally are powered by Plaid and Checkout.com’s best-in-class APIs,” Tracy Meng, VP of Partnerships at Checkout.com, said.

“Our partnership will connect Plaid’s account verification and Checkout.com’s payment services to make account funding accessible, seamless, and secure for fintechs and merchants alike. This is just the beginning of our shared journey to unlock the future of embedded finance.”

Plaid’s partner ecosystem will allow its network to provide flexible payment options for any company to make bank payments an option at their checkouts, streamlining the whole process from start to finish.

With the new platform, Plaid will speed up the whole payments process, allowing people to easily connect their bank account and instantly authorise money for a transaction.

"We are always looking for ways to improve our customers’ experience and the integration of Plaid's solution will do just that, removing friction in their experience by keeping them on our platform from the start to finish of each transaction.” Stuart Bailey, chief product officer at Currencycloud added.

The ecosystem will play host to nearly 50 payment providers, giving the 11,000 businesses on its books a wider choice of payment providers.

Just earlier this week, it was announced that Plaid will help power Currencycloud’s payment solutions through using its financial APIs and payments network.

In August 2021, Plaid also raised an undisclosed amount of funding from J.P. Morgan Private Capital Growth Equity Partners and AmEx Ventures, on top of the $425m Series D it bagged earlier in the year at a $13.4bn valuation.