UT: Plaid Opens Engineering Hub in Salt Lake City, to Hire 50

11 Apr, 2019

The Economic Development Corporation (EDCUtah), Salt Lake City, and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) are excited to announce that Plaid is opening an engineering hub in Salt Lake City.

Plaid’s technology platform allows consumers to connect their bank accounts to digital financial services applications like Venmo, Acorns and Coinbase. The new engineering hub will continue to build integrations for more than 10,000 banks and financial institutions in the U.S. to enable people to connect their accounts to fintech applications, regardless of where they bank. Millions of consumers now rely on digital services to manage their financial lives, with one in four people with U.S. bank accounts having used Plaid to connect to a fintech app.

“Utah is a hotbed of information technology and financial services, and innovative companies like Plaid are operating at the convergence of the two sectors. Their presence in the state strengthens both industries,” said Val Hale, executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development.

Plaid plans to hire 50 engineers by the end of the year in the new office (17,000 sf) located in downtown Salt Lake. Plaid has hired University of Utah Computer Science Grad and engineer, Kira Booth, to lead the engineering team.

“Plaid is adding the best and brightest talent to facilitate an ‘everybody wins’ financial system where technological innovation, protection of personal data, and consumer choice and control are all possible,” said Booth. “Plaid is focused on laying the foundation for fintech for decades to come, and is excited to lay down roots in a location that is equally as invested in the future of engineering and innovation.”

This expansion comes on the heels of a $250m series C funding round the company announced in December of last year. Earlier this year, the company was named to the Forbes Fintech 50 list and received recognition as a Most Innovative Company by Fast Company.

“Salt Lake City is thrilled to welcome Plaid to Utah’s beautiful Capital City! SLC’s fintech industry is stronger than ever, and Plaid’s investment and partnership adds to the City’s vision, innovation, and strategic focus to maintain Salt Lake City’s competitive advantage,” Lara Fritts, Director, Salt Lake City Dept. of Economic Development.

Plaid has 300 employees across San Francisco, New York, and Salt Lake City.

“We could not be more excited that Plaid has selected Salt Lake City as its new home for engineering,” said Theresa Foxley, President and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah. “Utah has a deep talent pool of software engineers, and Plaid’s role in powering the fintech ecosystem provides a unique opportunity for Salt Lake City to become the next innovation hub defining the future of financial services.”

Erin Farr, Business Development Manager, managed this project for EDCUtah.