Plaid valued at $8B in employee share sales

Plaid, a company that connects financial services to the bank account of users, allowing payments and verifying data, has allowed employees to sell some of their shares at a price of $ 8 billion, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday.

The valuation represents a 31% increase from the $6.1 billion valuation the 13-year-old company was valued at in April of last year, when it raised capital. $575 million round led by Franklin Templeton for the same reason: buying shares from employees, including helping them pay taxes related to converting long-term stock units (RSUs, a form of compensation) into shares.

Despite being a new, larger title, Plaid is still valued at 40% below its $13.4 billion valuation in 2021, while the relatively low interest rates have fueled fintech valuations.

Such activities are very common among companies that use money as a storage device. Recent examples include Stripe, which this week said it will allow employees to sell shares on A calculation of $ 159 billionalso Clay, ElevenLabsand Linear.

In addition to saving and helping employees recoup taxes incurred when the RSUs vest, they reduce the pressure on management to pursue an IPO before the company is ready.