<p>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.</p> <p>Zach Perret, co-founder and CEO of Plaid, <a href="https://blog.plaid.com/networks-mastercard-visa/">announced</a> 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.”</p> <p>Plaid currently helps users to connect their bank accounts to an app, and serves cryptocurrency clients including exchange Coinbase and wallet provider <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/22894/abra-inks-deal-with-fintech-unicorn-plaid-to-add-support-for-thousands-of-banks">Abra</a>, among others such as American Express and Venmo, PayPal's mobile payment service.</p> <p>This year, Plaid also <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/38573/coinbase-ripple-fall-out-of-linkedins-top-10-us-startups-list">debuted</a> the list of LinkedIn’s top 50 U.S. startups, ranking at 49. The startup has raised <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/plaid">over $350 million</a> in venture capital funding to date.</p>