Supporting Statement for Plaid Inc.: A Comprehensive Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Plaid Inc., a financial technology company. It begins with an introduction to Plaid, detailing its founding, business model, customers, competitors, and collaborators. The report then uses a TOWS matrix to identify existing threats and opportunities, followed by an examination of Plaid's strengths and weaknesses through VRIO and PESTLE analyses. It also assesses the company's competitive landscape, including its environment and culture. Furthermore, the report explores the impact of various factors, such as government regulations, economic conditions, technological advancements, and the COVID-19 pandemic, on Plaid's operations. The analysis also includes Plaid's collaborators like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and a web of culture paradigm, concluding with an analysis of Plaid's entry strategies and overall competitive advantage within the fintech industry.

1
Plaid – Supporting Statement
By
[Student Name]
[Course Name]
[Professor Name]
[Institution Name]
Date:

2
Table of Content
s
Section 1..........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
a. Company..............................................................................................................................3
b. Customers............................................................................................................................3
c. Competitors..........................................................................................................................3
d. Collaborators........................................................................................................................5
e. Climate.................................................................................................................................5
Section 2..........................................................................................................................................5
Existing Threats to Exploit Opportunities(TOWS matrix)..........................................................6
Section 3..........................................................................................................................................5
a web of culture………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….8
a Entry Strategies.........................................................................................................................8
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………...9
References........................................................................................................................................9

3
Plaid-Supporting Statement
Section 1
Introduction
Plaid Inc. The corporation was integrated in 2013 by creators William Hockey and Zach Perret.
Plaid is an economic technology company founded in San Francisco thru offices in London,
Amsterdam, New York City and Salt Lake City. Currently, Plaid has a $ 2.65 Billion appraisal
and over 400 employees. The company advances technology platforms, which empowers
applications to link with customers' bank accounts. Plaid concentrations on enabling customers
and businesses to interrelate with their bank financial records, check balances, and create
payments over financial technology uses.
Company
“Plaid focuses on democratizing financial services through technology. We build beautiful
customer experiences, developer-friendly infrastructure, and intelligent tools that enable
everyone to create amazing products that solve big problems”. The first plaid was envisioned to
be a particular financial management and chasing tool for customers, first known as "Silver" and
then as "Rambler". When faced with problems in connecting the required bank accounts for these
implements, Plaid drew the attention of its core business to an integrated banking API. Plaid has
upraised an aggregate of $310 million. Company raised $60 million in badges, Succession A and
Succession B assets from Google Ventures, Spark Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Goldman
Sachs, Citibank and American Express.
Customers
High-profile plaid users include the prevalent peer-to-peer recompense app Venmo, crypto
currency interchange Coin Base and Gemini, mobile investing app Robin Hood. Plaid said
people with bank accounts in one in four in the United States have connected to Fintech over an
app. City and American Express were early investors in venture arms, as well as Visa and rival
MasterCard startups. Since its inception in 2013, Plaid has grown progressively with its customer
list. The company utters it has merged with extra than 11,000 banks and linked more than 200
million customer accounts. Although it does not provide a specific number or a complete list of
companies, its customer base has doubled from 2017 to 2018 and has expanded to the United
Kingdom and Canada.
Competitors
Description Plaid Scivantage Invest Cloud
Description Designer of an application
user interface design to offer
monetary and banking
Developer of an
initiative platform
that aims to
transmute complex
Designer of digital
monetary services
platform intended
to provide

4
facilities. information and
procedures into
instinctive user
practices.
consumers with
information about
investment options.
HQ Location San Francisco, CA Jersey City, NJ Los Angeles, CA
Total Raised $310M $49.5M $133.15M
Employees 400/2019 167/2019 300/2019
Total raised $310M $49.5M $133.15M
Year
Founded
2013 2000 2010
Employees 400/2019 167/2019 300/2019
Post
Valuation
2.65B - 12/03/2018 N/A $445M -
12/27/2017
VRIO Framework
The VRIO framework is used to analyze and evaluate an organization's consistent competitive
advantage, and whether or not it succeeds in achieving it. Elements included in the VRIO
framework are value, import, imitation, and organization. The VRIO framework for plaid is as
follows.
Value
The financial resources for the Fantastic Ecosystem business model investment decisions and
challenges are invaluable as they help to create external opportunities. These Fintech’s
ecosystems also help business models with investment decisions and challenges in dealing with
external risks.
Rare
According to the VRIO analysis of investment decisions and challenges of the Fantastic
Ecosystem business models, financial resources are found to be extraordinary. Only a few
companies in the industry have strong financial resources.
Imitable
Financial resources identified through VRIO analysis have to be costly. The company has
acquired these resources through long-term profits over the years. Newcomers and competitors
will need similar long-term profits to accumulate this amount of financial resources.

5
Organization
Distribution network through VRI analysis of investment decisions and challenges of Fantastic
ecosystem business models. Challenges to reach their customers by making sure the products are
available in all their stores. Therefore, these resources are a source of lasting competitive
advantage for plaid ecosystem business models investment decisions and challenges.
Collaborators
“JPMorgan Chase & Co., a major financial player, has signed an agreement with Plaid Inc. The
technology startup has linked consumer bank accounts to transaction requests such as Venmo
and Robin Hood”. The agreement testifies that cooperation in the world of financial technology
is prospective to be a crucial issue in 2019. The contract provides Plaid with easy access to
financial Chase's customer database and secure access to provide new services to customers.
Plaid's contract with Chase signifies another footstep in the evolution of the fintech’s delicate
dance of fantasy with the world's largest financial institutions. What began as a competition is
now moving toward mutual cooperation, driven by the two assets that banks value most:
consumers and money (Dorfman, 2015).
Climate
At Plaid, 75% of employees perceive the environment as positive and 1 employees perceive it as
"extremely fast" work speed. Plaid's environment score ranks in 5th place when compared to its
competitors. This puts them at 30% of similar corporations in the United States in 2033 (51-200
employees) and 35% of 734 corporations in San Francisco. When reviewing the query "Should I
work in Plaid?" Ask yourself if you prefer a CEO rating. If CEO rankings are important to you,
then Plaid may be a perfect fit to apply for a job, as Plaid's CEO rating is in the top 5 for
companies of this size. I am at the top of the culture for Plaid with the CEO rating of Plaid. That
being said, Plaid doesn't score as many goals for meetings or managers (Nelson, Jarrahi, &
Thomson, 2017).
Pestle analysis
Plaid pestle Analysis is a tactical tool for analyzing the organization's macro environment.
PESTEL means “political, economic, social, technical, environmental and legal factors” that
affect the environment of the plaid (Mohammad & Teguh, 2019).
Political factor
Government regulations distress the state-run of the banking division. Whenever the industry
faces political influence, the government can intervene in banking matters. This includes
dishonesty in political parties, or specific legislation such as labor laws, tariffs, trade restrictions,
and political stability.
Economic factor

6
The economy industry and the banking are tangled. How income drifts, whether economically
prosperous or barely surviving a recession, affects how many large investors can access banks.
Expenditure habits, and the motives behind them, influence consumer banks to borrow or spend.
Sociocultural factor
Cultural impacts, such as behaviors and purchasing needs, influence how people view and use
banking choices. People turn to banks for advice on business, home and education loans.
Consumers learn about investments, bank accounts, credit cards, and more.
Technological factor
Technology is changing as consumers manage their funds. Many offer mobile apps for
monitoring bank accounts, transferring funds and paying bills on smartphones. Even banks
themselves are using technology in the workplace. Telecommunication is being embraced
through virtual meetings. This changes the need for personal appointments.
Legal factor
The banking industry adheres to strict rules regarding consumer laws, privacy, and business
structures to verify the framework in the industry. That structures are necessary for consumers in
the assigned country and for worldwide consumers.
Environmental
Many things are taken care of through mobile apps and online banking services. Consumers can
apply for a credit card online, purchase checks online, and find answers to several of their
banking questions virtual or by phone. Thus, decreasing the individual traces of the environment.
Changes in environmental factors can have an undeviating influence not merely on the plaid but
also on other players in software and services. Macro environmental factors be able to affect the
Porter Five forces that form the strategic and competitive countryside. They can affect the
competitive benefit or overall level of profit of an individual firm in the software and amenities
industry.
Section 2
Existing Threats to Exploit Opportunities
Plaid is a technology raised area that enables applications to be linked to a user's bank accounts.
The founders of the company discovered that linking bank accounts to fintech was a very painful
process, so they tried to create a unified banking API that would solve it for other applications as
well (Plaid Technologies, Plaid response to CFPB regarding Consumer Access to Financial
Records Docket, 2017).
Internal Strengths to Face External Threats
Plaid is a two-way platform, which worth it succeeds when it eases transaction costs on one or
both flanks of its podium. Plaid has experienced the cross-side effects of the network because
once more banks are auxiliary to the platform, more applications are interested in joining the

7
network: there are currently around 10,000 banks. Plaid appears to have resolved the chicken and
egg difficult that usually starts when trying to build a two-way network. Such platforms can be
very powerful because once built, they create high barriers to entry for competitors.
On other side, especially since the platform is limited to banks, the corporation is occasionally at
the kindness of these groups if the application miscarries as of the bank, corporation has little
alternative. (Their uptime is now 95%). Although start-up rivals face barriers to entry into
launching a new two-way network, banks may not be able to: a consortium of banks may provide
the same service as a fictitious plaid, and potentially but with high uptime it can. So far, Plaid
has survived to some extent, possibly following the success of this "dog trick".
Solving Internal Weaknesses by Exploiting Opportunities
Another danger for Plaid is that margins may shrink over interval as its fresh tech clients begin to
focus on reducing costs. Competitive facilities, especially if improved funded, can easily
compete through lower prices.
Minimizing Threats and Handling Internal Weaknesses
Confidentiality of personal information provided by online users is a major challenge. After the
pledge, rules, regulations and laws related to logistics services are followed all over the world.
This makes this institution respectable and very famous.
Impact of Mandatory Labor Benefits Legislation
There are laws regarding benefits that are supposed to be provided to the organization's labor,
and they vary from country to country. These rules include working hours as well as benefits that
must be provided to workers. This results in increased operation costs, and lower production
capacity for plaid. The banking industry adheres to strict consumer laws, privacy and business
structure rules to verify the industry framework. These structures are essential for consumers in
the assigned country and consumers around the world.
Impact of covid-19 and Currency Devaluation
COVID-19 epidemic has led to the wickedest economic crisis as the Great Depression. In this
situation, fintech’s had a unique ability to deliver access to the monetary system which would not
otherwise be possible due to the somatic cessation of the bank's divisions.
Though Covid-19 acted as a catalyst to enhance fintech’s adoption. Survey defendants directed
that digital money organization would be their preferred technique after the epidemic. 80% of
defendants say they can currently manage their money completely deprived of a bank branch.
This points to the statement that, as the economy recovers momentum, every monetary services
provider will rapidly develop a tech company (Wójcik & Ioannou, 2020).
Effects of Increased Taxation
With the exception of a few tax rules that affect IP and R&D, any tax result is likely to result in a
blockchain exit from the actual transaction, rather than the technology itself, and this is only the

8
case. I will take action when more practical uses are established. Tax practitioners should
therefore monitor the practical use of this technology as it develops.
Impact of Violence
Government regulations disturb the government management of the banking division. Whenever
the industry faces political influence, the government can intervene in banking matters. This
includes dishonesty in political parties, or specific legislation such as labor laws, tariffs, trade
restrictions, and political stability.
Section 3
Web of Culture
Paradigm: Much of your financial life is quietly run by Plaid, a platform that provides the
infrastructure to seamlessly integrate financial apps with consumer bank and credit card
accounts.
Stories: Consumer and business stories that work with Plaid are extremely positive as Plaid
continues our previous solution. During the Plaid Pilot Program, we met or exceeded every
performance standard.
Power: The Company builds a data transfer network that powers fantastic and digital finance
products. Plaid Products, a technology platform, enables applications to be linked to users' bank
accounts.
Organizations: Built technical infrastructure APIs that connect users, traditional financial
institutions and developers.
Control system: Different backgrounds and skills, but we all want to build a more efficient and
comprehensive financial infrastructure together.
Rituals: Founded in 2012, Plaid empowers Fintech to innovate by providing plumbing to
facilitate the flow of financial information from banks to its customers.
Entry strategy
Strategic Drift
The strategic drift of Plaid is as follows.
Plaid's services allow users to share their financial information with thousands of apps and
services such as Acorn, Betterment, Chime, Transferwise and Venmo. Plaid has emerged as a
key service in the financial services sector. At the time of the visa announcement, it was reported
that another four people with US bank accounts had used the plaid to contact Fintech, or include
corrupt firms like Gemini, or traditional financial services firms.
Phase 1: started out by building the technical infrastructure APIs that connect consumers,
traditional financial institutions, and developers.

9
Phase 2: Plaid helps developers connect to financial services in the same way that the strip helps
them connect payments or travel to communication devices. By accessing a set of tools from
Plaid, developers can build their applications to bank information and other financial data
without having to worry about how they can connect to thousands of different banking systems.
Phase 3: Plaid has raised more than 0 310 million since its inception, and the Series C
investment has valued its fat at 2. 2.65 billion last year. Investing in such a strategy shows that
the industry as a whole is lagging behind, and the inclusion of MasterCard and Visa gives the
company additional credibility in the market (Mohammed & Teguh, 2019).
Phase 4: When Plaid announced a $ 250 million Series C investment last year, it left out some
key investors. It was revealed today that MasterCard and Visa quietly participated in the round.
Conclusion
Plaid, based in San Francisco, is well-positioned to monitor this practice. This is a finite glue that
connects the bank accounts of the users to the app without any hindrance. Plaid concerns apps to
facilitate these transactions, resulting in associates to more than 10,000 monetary institutions.
Through the epidemic, Plaid has seen even more interest from incoming financial organizations.
It is looking at regional banks and credit unions that want to integrate into the data ecosystem.
With connectors such as Plaid Study, it wants to make it easier for its users to access the
Fintech’s app economy, which helps in gig economy workforces, for trading Robin Hood, or
student finances.
References
Plaid Technologies, Plaid response to CFPB regarding Consumer Access to Financial Records
Docket No. CFPB-2016-0048 (Feb. 21, 2017), accessible at
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=CFPB-2016-0048-0058.
Plaid Technologies, Written Statement for the Symposium on Consumer Access to Financial
Records (Feb. 19, 2020), available at
https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_pittsstatement_ symposium-
consumer-access-financial-records.pdf.
https://www.cbinsights.com/company/plaid-technologies-competitors
"Plaid: Fintech's Happy Plumbers." Forbes, Forbes Magazine,
www.forbes.com/plaid-fintech/#6145e4ad67f9.
Data, Pitchbook: "Plaid:Pitchbook." Pitchbook_plaid.Pdf, 14 Nov. 2019.
https://patentbusinesslawyer.com/fintech-case-study-plaid-visa-acquisition/
Nelson, S.B., Jarrahi, M.H. and Thomson, L., 2017. Mobility of knowledge work and
affordances of digital technologies. International Journal of Information Management,
37(2), pp.54-62.
Gay, R. (2018). Not that bad: Dispatches from rape culture. Atlantic Books. Cindy, S.,

10
Mohammad, B. L., & Teguh, S. I. (2019). BANKING AND FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY
(FINTECH) ISLAMIC INTEGRATION WITH COLLABORATIVE MODELS. Russian
Journal of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences, 91(7).
Wójcik, D., & Ioannou, S. (2020). COVID‐19 and Finance: Market Developments So Far and
Potential Impacts on the Financial Sector and Centres. Tijdschrift voor economische en
sociale geografie, 111(3), 387-400.