CE-Ventures Backs $657M Fintech Push with Plaid and Mesh Investments

Malaz Madani

Last updated 29-07-2025

3 min

CE-Ventures supported significant investment rounds in Plaid and Mesh totalling $657 million.

Plaid raised $575 million to enhance its financial data connectivity platform.

Mesh secured $82 million to advance blockchain infrastructure for seamless digital asset transfers.

CE-Ventures aims to bolster open, programmable, and crypto-supported financial systems in MENA.

Despite the evolving regulatory landscape, regional fintech enthusiasm surges with global alignment.

CE-Ventures, the venture capital arm of UAE-based Crescent Enterprises, has thrown its weight behind two major investment rounds in fintech infrastructure. The company participated in the fundraising efforts of Plaid and Mesh, both making waves in the rapidly evolving world of digital financial services. Altogether, the rounds amassed a staggering $657 million. Not exactly pocket change, is it?

Plaid, which has become something of a household name among fintech enthusiasts, focuses on collecting financial data across various sources to help users tap into their bank accounts with ease. Their platform makes things like lending, payments, and budgeting a walk in the park, even if navigating open banking is usually a bit of a faff. In its most recent investment round, Plaid pulled in $575 million. That round was led by heavyweights Franklin Templeton, with CE-Ventures joining stalwarts like Fidelity, BlackRock, NEA, and Ribbit Capital. This sort of backing is spot on for Plaid’s ambitions to streamline connectivity in finance.

Then there’s Mesh—perhaps a lesser-known name but certainly no slouch. Mesh is building blockchain-based infrastructure that lets digital assets, including those stablecoins everyone seems to be talking about, flow seamlessly between wallets, exchanges, and apps. Their vision? To make moving assets online as straightforward as sending an email. They managed to rake in $82 million in their Series B, with Paradigm leading the pack and contributions from CE-Ventures as well as Consensys, QuantumLight Capital, and Yolo Investments.

Both investments come as part of CE-Ventures’ broader push to support the shift towards open, programmable, and crypto-supported financial systems. Speaking to a few MENA founders recently, you can feel the hunger in the region to build not just consumer-facing apps but the deep plumbing that will underpin tomorrow’s fintech stack. Arageek’s own mission to power up MENA startups finds a natural resonance with that kind of thinking, I reckon. You find yourself rooting for these ambitious plays, even if, honestly, I’m not a huge fan of buzzwords like “programmable finance”—the potential here is clear as day.

That said, these bets aren’t without their risks. The regulatory landscape is… let’s say, a work in progress. Still, when established investors and platforms like CE-Ventures back ventures of this scale, it sends a message: the region is no longer just watching the fintech race from the sidelines.

It’s early days, of course, but seeing the MENA investment community plugging into global fintech trends gives startups here a reason to be chuffed to bits. And believe it or not, just being able to say you’re part of this unfolding story—typos and all—makes following these shifts pretty exciting.

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