Plaid, a fintech infrastructure company, has completed a new fundraising round valuing it at $8 billion, up from $6.1 billion in 2025, reflecting its growth and increasing focus on AI. The company has raised $1.3 billion over its lifetime and is expanding its offerings in financial services while remaining private longer, similar to other startups like Stripe and Anthropic.
Plaid's recent $8 billion valuation following a tender offer illustrates the growing trend of startups opting for secondary markets to provide liquidity to employees while remaining private longer. This approach, highlighted by both Plaid and Stripe's recent actions, suggests a significant shift in exit strategies, leveraging tender offers as a means to reward employees without pursuing an immediate public offering. For professionals tracking startup funding, this emphasizes the importance of understanding secondary markets as viable liquidity options in a slow exit market.