Plaid, the US start-up behind an API that lets banks share financial data with developers, has raised $2.8 million in a funding round led by Spark Capital.
Google Ventures, NEA, Felicis Ventures, and Homebrew Capital also joined the funding round for the firm which has been in private beta for several months, according to VentureBeat.
Plaid says that its Restful API allows developers to programatically interact with banks and credit cards, giving them access to account and transactional data, including merchant names, street addresses and geocoordinates.
Founder Zach Perret told VentureBeat that the lack of a unified bank API and poor quality transactional data has made it difficult to build apps that help users make the most of their financial data.
"Financial technology has always had significant barriers to entry, and by simplifying the infrastructure we're helping developers transform the way businesses and consumers use their financial data," he says.
The firm claims to have already attracted significant interest from developers, using the API to build apps related to things such as accounting, expenses and lending.