Plaid Inc., a technology company whose network helps fintech apps connect to customer accounts, is considering an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company has held preliminary discussions with banks about a potential IPO, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. Plaid secured an $8 billion valuation in a funding round earlier this year, Bloomberg News reported.

Deliberations are ongoing and no final decisions have been made, the people said. A spokesperson for Plaid declined to comment.

San Francisco-based Plaid was founded in 2013 and has been closely watched as a contender for an IPO amid a dearth of fintech deals. It is best known for helping consumers connect their data across financial institutions.

In April 2025, Plaid raised $575 million in a funding round that valued the firm at $6.1 billion. That was a far cry from the $13.4 billion price tag it received in 2021 amid a boom in fintech valuations.

Recently, Plaid partnered with OpenAI to give consumers using ChatGPT personalized financial advice based on data they share with the tech companies.

An IPO later this year could set the company up to follow a potential mega-deal for Anthropic PBC as soon as October. Fintech IPOs have been virtually non-existent this year despite a record start for US first-time share sales. After a burst of activity brought Figure Technology Solutions Inc. and Wealthfront Corp., the market for fintech firms cooled.

The US IPO market had a record start to the year with more than $127 billion raised through first-time share sales, excluding blank-check firms and other financial vehicles, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The figure, bolstered by Elon Musk’s record-setting SpaceX IPO, compares to just $47.4 billion for the entirety of 2025, the data show.

Plaid has long drawn interest from investors in the financial sector. Companies including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc. have invested in the startup. The fintech also tapped Goldman Sachs last year to help it manage a sale of existing shares through a tender offer.

In 2021, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s asset-management arm invested in Plaid, despite comments from the bank’s Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, who criticized the startup at the time for what he said was an improper use of data.