Plaid appoints its first CFO ahead of rumoured IPO

Open banking provider Plaid has hired its first chief financial officer amid growing speculation that the company is laying the groundwork for an IPO.

First revealed by The Financial Times, former Expedia chief financial officer Eric Hart is joining Plaid as CFO.

Hart spent over 13 years at travel giant Expedia where he held multiple positions in corporate development before becoming chief strategy officer and finally chief financial officer.

Plaid’s CEO and co-founder Zach Perret confirmed the appointment on X (formerly Twitter), writing:

“I’m thrilled to welcome Eric Hart to Plaid as our first CFO. Eric is an incredible leader, and his many years of experience building Expedia into one of the largest platforms in the world are inspiring. Excited for Eric to join us for the next phase of Plaid!”

In 2021 Plaid was nearly acquired by Visa in a $5.3bn takeover deal which fell apart a year after being announced under scrutiny from the US Justice Department over competition concerns.

Just three months after the deal collapsed Plaid raised a $425m Series D funding round at a $13.4bn valuation.

“Expedia was one of the leading players in that space of the digitisation of travel,” Hart told The Financial Times on his appointment at Plaid. 

“I see a very similar opportunity here, which is the digitisation of financial services. That’s been happening for a while, but I think we can all see that that’s accelerated over the last few years.”