Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation

#1

Post by AiaMD13 » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 12:32 PM UTC

Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation
techcrunch.com

Re: Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation

#2

Post by yoran » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 2:15 PM UTC

Does anyone know if such a thing exists in Europe?

Re: Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation

#3

Post by travisoneill1 » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 2:19 PM UTC

Startup. $2.65B valuation. I guess "startup" just means any non-public company now.

Re: Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation

#4

Post by akarma » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 2:20 PM UTC

There's been a whistleblower or two on HN about how Plaid scapes and sells your bank account transaction history to third parties.

It seems more unethical than most selling-user-data strategies in that the users don't even know Plaid is involved in the transaction whatsoever; they're just a hidden middle layer.

I'd be interested to know if this is still part of their monetization strategy, or if anyone at Plaid can confirm definitively that they do not collect and sell your bank account transaction history?

Edit: So sorry on my part, specifically on selling data, must've mixed this up now that I've read the comment (linked below). It involved scraping user data against the wishes of the banks, and doing huge amounts of customer analytics with such data, and another separate thread on giving transaction history as part of the service. Still a negative but different than above-- will leave this up so as to not destroy thread.

Re: Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation

#5

Post by skilled » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 2:24 PM UTC

akarma wrote: post #4

There's been a whistleblower or two on HN about how Plaid scapes and sells your bank account transaction history to third parties. It seems more unethical than most selling-user-data strategies in that the users don't even know Plaid is involved in the transaction whatsoever ; they're just a hidden middle layer. I'd be interested to know if this is still part of their monetization strategy, or if anyone at Plaid can…

Link, my friend.

Re: Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation

#6

Post by alehul » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 2:27 PM UTC

skilled wrote: post #5

akarma wrote: post #4

There's been a whistleblower or two on HN about how Plaid scapes and sells your bank account transaction history to third parties. It seems more unethical than most selling-user-data strategies in that the users don't even know Plaid is involved in the transaction whatsoever ; they're just a hidden middle layer. I'd be interested to know if this is still part of their monetization strategy, or if anyone at Plaid can…

Link, my friend.

I'll link as soon as I'm not on mobile.

Recent incident was on "most unethical thing you've done" thread that reached the top of HN. Someone mentioned selling user data while being a middle layer, and confirmed it was Plaid after it was suggested.

Not claiming this is definitively true which is why I'd like to hear from someone at Plaid; I believe I've interacted with them through Robinhood so it'd be concerning.

Re: Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation

#7

Post by mlevental » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 2:29 PM UTC

travisoneill1 wrote: post #3

Startup. $2.65B valuation. I guess "startup" just means any non-public company now.

welcome to 5 years ago. I see people opening up conventional small business (think pizza place) calling themselves startups. but really who cares

Re: Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation

#8

Post by lbotos » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 2:29 PM UTC

akarma wrote: post #4

There's been a whistleblower or two on HN about how Plaid scapes and sells your bank account transaction history to third parties. It seems more unethical than most selling-user-data strategies in that the users don't even know Plaid is involved in the transaction whatsoever ; they're just a hidden middle layer. I'd be interested to know if this is still part of their monetization strategy, or if anyone at Plaid can…

They at least collect it, as they offer that as a service:

https://plaid.com/products/transactions

I flirted with the idea of using a trial account to feed that data to a Prometheus server to build graphs in Grafana. A slightly more powerful mint/personal capital would be a super valuable tool.

Re: Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation

#9

Post by estsauver » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 2:29 PM UTC

travisoneill1 wrote: post #3

Startup. $2.65B valuation. I guess "startup" just means any non-public company now.

I think the pg definition of "A startup is a company that is pursuing a very high growth strategy" still applies. If you believe Plaid is trying to get themselves to 5B in the next two years, it can probably still apply.

I think of it as "Startup" vs "Steady State."

Re: Fintech startup Plaid raises $250M at a $2.65B valuation

#10

Post by tlarkworthy » Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 2:30 PM UTC

alehul wrote: post #6

skilled wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Link, my friend.

I'll link as soon as I'm not on mobile. Recent incident was on "most unethical thing you've done" thread that reached the top of HN. Someone mentioned selling user data while being a middle layer, and confirmed it was Plaid after it was suggested. Not claiming this is definitively true which is why I'd like to hear from someone at Plaid; I believe I've interacted with them through Robinhood so it'd be concerning.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17692291

Edit update to root

But the comment is not quite as bad as what is suggested