CE-Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of UAE-based Crescent Enterprises, has announced investments in Plaid and Mesh, two companies developing infrastructure for the next generation of financial services.

The investments reflect CE-Ventures’ view that finance is evolving toward systems that are open, programmable, and increasingly crypto-native, with long-term value likely to come from companies building core data and connectivity infrastructure.

Plaid and Mesh, both based in Silicon Valley, address different aspects of financial interoperability.

Plaid focuses on data infrastructure that links financial institutions with fintech applications, while Mesh is building tools for seamless movement of digital assets.

Plaid recently raised US$575 million in a funding round led by Franklin Templeton, with participation from CE-Ventures, Fidelity, BlackRock, NEA, Ribbit Capital, and others.

Mesh secured US$82 million in its Series B round, led by Paradigm and joined by CE-Ventures, Consensys, QuantumLight Capital, Yolo Investments, and others.

“At CE-Ventures we are investing in the financial systems of the future, and we see Plaid and Mesh as foundational platforms in a converging world of fintech and crypto,”

said Sudarshan Pareek, Senior Vice President at CE-Ventures.

“We are at the beginning of a systemic shift in global finance, from closed systems to open networks, from batch-based processing to real-time programmability, and from siloed fiat rails to interoperable digital assets. Plaid and Mesh are laying the technical infrastructure for that future.”

These investments are in line with broader changes in financial infrastructure, including greater interoperability, real-time programmability through APIs and automation, and increased user control over financial data and assets.

CE-Ventures has a history of backing infrastructure companies operating across both traditional finance and emerging technologies.

Its latest investments reflect a belief that the most resilient value lies in platforms that support broad financial ecosystems rather than single-use verticals.

Plaid has become a key enabler of consumer-authorised financial data sharing, supporting thousands of apps and financial institutions with services such as account linking, identity verification, and personal finance management.

As open finance expands worldwide, Plaid’s infrastructure is becoming integral to fintech ecosystems.

Mesh is building a blockchain-native API layer that enables users and platforms to move crypto and stablecoins across wallets, exchanges, and applications.

As digital assets gain utility beyond speculation, Mesh is developing the infrastructure needed to support crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat payments and transfers.

Featured image credit: CE-Ventures