Plaid

A US fintech that connects apps to people's bank accounts. It has a London office and advertises UK roles in engineering, sales and policy.

About Plaid

Plaid builds the technology that lets apps connect safely to your bank account. If you have linked a bank account to a budgeting, investing or payments app, there is a good chance Plaid was the link. It describes its platform as a data transfer network that lets apps check balances, verify accounts and make payments with permission.

Plaid was founded by Zach Perret and William Hockey. Wikipedia gives the founding year as 2013 in the infobox and 2012 in the text. It is headquartered in San Francisco. It operates in the UK and several other countries, and its careers site lists London office roles such as software engineer, sales engineer, implementation engineer, enterprise account executive and policy manager.

Its products include Auth, Balance, Identity, Assets, Investments, Liabilities, Payment Initiation, Income and Monitor.

We did not find a formal mission statement in the pages we read.

For young people, Plaid is a US company with a real UK team, so a good example of how a global fintech hires locally in London. We did not find a UK early-careers programme, so check its careers page.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Let apps connect to bank accounts.', 'title': 'Account linking'}
• {'desc': 'Payment initiation from bank accounts.', 'title': 'Payments'}
• {'desc': 'Confirm who owns an account.', 'title': 'Identity and verification'}
• {'desc': 'Data on income and holdings with consent.', 'title': 'Income and assets'}

Key facts

• Founded: 2012 or 2013 (sources differ) by Zach Perret and William Hockey
• Headquarters: San Francisco, USA
• UK presence: London office with engineering, sales and policy roles
• Operates in the UK and several other countries

Website: plaid.com