Plaud eyes 2028 US IPO after crossing $1B valuation
Tech Funding News Abhinaya Prabhu
Plaud wants a US IPO in 2028, but only after revenue tops $1B. The note-taking startup is already profitable and sits above a $1B valuation.
Based on reporting by Tech Funding News, Abhinaya Prabhu — read the original for the full story.
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Plaud is aiming for a US listing in 2028, with one big condition attached: annual revenue has to get past $1 billion first. That target comes from a Wall Street Journal report, and it lands after the company says it crossed $100 million in annualised recurring revenue and turned profitable at a valuation above $1 billion in 2025.
The company, founded in 2022, sells AI note-taking hardware and software, best known for the Plaud Note, a card-sized device that clips to a smartphone and turns conversations into transcripts and summaries. It says it has more than 2.5 million users in over 170 countries, and it is now aiming for $500 million in global sales in 2026. The US and Europe together make up roughly two-thirds of that revenue.
Plaud’s setup is a reminder that this is still a hardware business, even if the pitch is all about AI. It sources chips from outside suppliers, including Realtek, makes the devices in Shenzhen, and keeps design and engineering in-house. Around 300 staff are based in China, nearly 100 in San Francisco, with additional teams in Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia.
The company’s biggest backer is Vertex Holdings, the Singapore firm owned by Temasek. And it is already thinking beyond organic growth: Nathan Xu says Plaud has looked at acquisitions, mainly to buy engineering capacity faster than it can build it itself. That’s a very different kind of M&A story from the usual trophy-hunting startup playbook.
Plaud is pushing into a crowded market where everybody seems to think conversation data is the next thing worth owning. Pocket, Sandbar and Granola are all in the mix, each with different hardware or software angles. Plaud’s current edge is simple: it’s profitable, and it has already turned devices into subscriptions. That is rarer than it should be.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the kind of company investors like because it has both a gadget and a story, which means nobody has to admit they’re just buying the story. The real tell is the acquisition talk: when a startup starts shopping for engineering capacity instead of product bragging rights, it usually knows the race is getting expensive. The market is still pretending there will be one winner; there probably won’t be.
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