Plaud AI
Category: Voice / Speech AI
Plaud is an AI-powered voice recorder that captures, transcribes, and summarizes conversations from meetings, calls, and voice memos. Plaud AI was founded in 2021. The company is led by Nathan Xu (Xu Gao). Based in San Francisco, USA. Team size: 500+. Total funding raised: Bootstrapped with $4.75M convertible note. Latest round: Debt. Key investors include Carbide Ventures, J12 Ventures, Patrick Kavanagh (angel).
- Founded
- 2021
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, USA
- Team size
- 500+
- Total funding
- Bootstrapped with $4.75M convertible note
Value proposition
Enhances productivity by seamlessly recording, transcribing, and summarizing audio content to ensure critical information is retained and actionable.
Products and solutions
PLAUD Note: Card-sized AI voice recorder for phone calls and in-person meetings., PLAUD Note Pro: Flagship credit-card recorder with multi-mic capture and highlight button (~$179)., PLAUD NotePin / NotePin S: Wearable AI pin (clip/lanyard/wristband) with highlight button; NotePin S launched CES 2026., Plaud One: Wearable AI earbuds/agent device (Explorer Edition pre-order IFA 2026)., Plaud Desktop: System-audio meeting notetaker for online calls (no bot)., Plaud Team / Membership: Subscription + enterprise workspace (transcription, Ask Plaud, shared memory).
Unique value
Combines dedicated hardware with multi-engine AI software to capture high-quality audio from phone calls and environment, delivering structured summaries, mind maps, and actionable insights.
Target customer
Professionals, students, journalists, consultants, and individuals needing accurate conversation capture and retrieval.
Industries served
Technology, Consulting, Education, Journalism, Healthcare, Sales
Technology advantage
Seamless hardware-software ecosystem powered by top AI models (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google), enabling superior transcription and summarization with an already profitable business model supporting growth.
How they differentiate
Offers an integrated AI note-taking solution combining physical voice recorder hardware with a software platform, unlike competitors focusing solely on hardware or software.
Main competitors
Focase REC, Mobvoi AI Recorder, Otter.ai
Key partnerships
OpenAI (GPT-powered features), Anthropic (Claude 3 models), Google (Gemini models)
Notable customers
Not publicly disclosed
Major milestones
Reached profitability and $250M annualized revenue (2025)., Acquired YC-backed StarJar to launch PLAUD for Business / Plaud Team., Surpassed 2.5 million global users (Sep 2026)., Software ARR crossed $100M after shipping 2M+ devices (Jun 2026)., Opened Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore; doubled investment to S$20M (Sep 2026)., Achieved GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO27001, ISO27701, EN 18031 compliance., Launched Note Pro, NotePin S, Plaud Desktop, and Plaud One Explorer Edition., Confirmed World's No.1 AI Note-Taking Device Brand by Euromonitor.
Growth metrics
Software ARR topped $100M (Jun 2026) after shipping 2M+ AI notetakers; 2.5M+ users globally (Sep 2026); $250M annualized total revenue (Forbes/Sacra, Sep 2025); profitable; Singapore APAC HQ with S$20M commitment.
Market positioning
Positioned as a premium and user-friendly AI note-taking brand serving professionals and students globally.
Geographic focus
Global presence including users across 170+ countries.
Patents and IP
No publicly disclosed patents; company terms indicate ownership of intellectual property including copyrights and patents.
About Nathan Xu (Xu Gao)
Serial entrepreneur (fourth startup after three prior failures). Former investor at China Growth Capital. Co-founded Plaud with hardware veteran Charles Liu after earlier Izyrec recorder partnership; pivoted to AI note-taking with ChatGPT.
Latest news about Plaud AI
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Official website: https://www.plaud.ai