Mastercard, Visa invest in crypto-serving fintech unicorn Plaid

Payments giants Mastercard and Visa have invested an undisclosed sum in Plaid, a crypto-serving fintech unicorn that recently hit a valuation of over $2.5 billion.

Zach Perret, co-founder and CEO of Plaid, announced the news in a blog post on Monday, saying that the firm is well on its way to create a consumer-first financial ecosystem that will “significantly improve the way people manage their financial lives.”

Plaid currently helps users to connect their bank accounts to an app, and serves cryptocurrency clients including exchange Coinbase and wallet provider Abra, among others such as American Express and Venmo, PayPal's mobile payment service.

This year, Plaid also debuted the list of LinkedIn’s top 50 U.S. startups, ranking at 49. The startup has raised over $350 million in venture capital funding to date.