Financial technology platform Plaid Technologies, Inc., announced today it has raised $44 million in new funding led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners to support the growth of the fintech ecosystem Plaid powers.

"We're at the beginning of what promises to be an exciting few years in financial services," said Zach Perret, CEO and co-founder of Plaid. "The pace of innovation in financial services is just starting to ramp up, and we're excited to collaborate with financial institutions, incumbents, and new startups to build the tools that consumers and businesses need to live better financial lives. As the platform upon which thousands of applications are now built, we're excited to use this new capital to continue to scale our operations."

Based in San Francisco, Plaid was founded in 2012 with a mission to lower the barriers to entry in financial services by building developer- and user-friendly infrastructure. Plaid launched publicly in April 2015, and its technology platform enables applications including Venmo, Gusto, OptionsHouse, TransferWise, and charity:water to connect with their users' bank accounts.

"Plaid is leading the way in making the next generation of financial technology possible by serving as the data layer between financial institutions and applications," said Christopher Dawe, co-head of the venture capital and growth equity team at Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. "In a short amount of time the company has reached millions of end users across a variety of applications, which exemplifies the power of data network effects and scale advantages. We are excited to partner with Plaid and support the business as it continues to enable financial innovation."

NEA, which made its first investment in Plaid in 2013 and led the company's Series A, also participated in this fundraise.

"We've been working with the Plaid team since their early days, and it's incredible how much innovation the company has powered in just a few short years," said Rick Yang, Partner at NEA. "The products being built on Plaid's technology platform demonstrate that improving the data infrastructure layer is the key to driving further financial progress. Plaid enables core product functionalities and creates superior user experiences--we think they have all of the makings to be the leading force in the fintech infrastructure market, and we're excited to be a part of it."

Plaid's suite of APIs provides the tools that developers need to build great financial services applications, from high-quality transaction data to bank accounts authentication tools and comprehensive analytics to reduce fraud. The additional fundraising will be used to enhance these products, grow the Plaid team, support deeper integrations with financial institutions, and expand into international markets.

About Goldman Sachs Investment Partners

The Goldman Sachs Investment Partners (GSIP) venture capital and growth equity team has invested more than $6 billion in private opportunities globally. The team partners with entrepreneurs to build disruptive businesses and, since 2003, has invested in over 100 private transactions, including Uber, Facebook, SMS Assist, Spotify, Pinterest, thredUP, foodpanda, GoEuro, Cadre and Compass. The GSIP venture capital and growth equity team is located in New York, London, Hong Kong and Mumbai.