Gen Z-focused personal finance app Buddy has teamed up with open finance specialist Plaid. The partnership will enable Buddy users to manage their finances and track their spending more easily thanks to Plaid’s open finance APIs. Plaid’s APIs ensure secure connections between users’ financial accounts and financials apps. The integration will allow users to easily monitor accounts and expenses in a single location, as well automate their savings.
“By using apps like Buddy, younger generations can gain better control over their finances and make more informed decisions, helping them to develop healthy habits that will serve them well in the future,” Buddy founder and CEO Olle Lind said. “By teaming up with Plaid, we are making this process quicker and more painless than ever before, helping millions across the world budget and plan for the future they want and deserve.”
Buddy is among the top personal finance apps in the U.S. and Canada. The app has three million users and operates in 175 countries. The Stockholm, Sweden-based company was founded in 2017.
Plaid’s partnership announcement with Buddy came just days after Plaid reported that it was working with fellow Finovate alum Finastra. The two companies announced that Plaid had integrated with Finastra’s Fusion Digital Banking platform. The integration will provide account verification tools to make it easier and more secure for customers to link their financial accounts to financial apps.
“As the world continues to embrace open finance, it is critical that we deliver the services community banks, credit unions, and all financial institutions need to make it simpler and easier for their customers to connect the various pieces of their financial picture,” Finastra Chief Product Officer of Universal Banking Narenda Mistry said.
April has been a busy time for Plaid. The company launched its Instant Payouts feature earlier in the month. The new offering is a real-time payment tool to send funds instantly via Plaid’s Transfer solution. In April, the company also announced a partnership with mobile banking app Monzo.
Plaid has been a Finovate alum since 2014. The company’s network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Europe. Plaid has raised more than $734 million in funding from investors including American Express Ventures and Bedrock Capital. The company achieved a valuation of $13.4 billion in the spring of 2021. Founded in 2013 by Zach Perret and William Hockey, Plaid is based in San Francisco, California.