CE-Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Crescent Enterprises, has announced its participation in strategic investment rounds for Silicon Valley-based Plaid and Mesh, two pioneering companies building critical infrastructure for next-gen financial services.
This move aligns with CE-Ventures’ vision of enabling a future of finance that is open, programmable, and crypto-native, investing in platforms that facilitate financial interoperability and digital asset movement.
Plaid raised $575 million in a round led by Franklin Templeton, with participation from CE-Ventures, Fidelity, BlackRock, NEA, Ribbit Capital, and others. Plaid enables secure connections between bank accounts and applications, powering use cases such as lending, payments, and budgeting.
Mesh secured $82 million in a Series B round led by Paradigm, with contributions from CE-Ventures, Consensys, QuantumLight Capital, Yolo Investments, and more. Mesh is developing a blockchain-native API layer to enable seamless crypto and stablecoin transfers across wallets, exchanges, and apps.
Sudarshan Pareek, Senior Vice President at CE-Ventures, commented:
“We are at the beginning of a systemic shift in global finance… and Plaid and Mesh are laying the technical infrastructure for that future.”
These investments highlight a generational shift in financial infrastructure, driven by:
- Interoperability across platforms and geographies
- Programmability with APIs and smart contracts
- User-centricity, granting users control over data and assets
With this, CE-Ventures strengthens its position in backing infrastructure providers shaping the foundation of the future financial ecosystem.
