PLAID announces funding from Google

PLAID, Inc. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Kenta Kurahashi; hereinafter referred to as “PLAID”), the creator of a cloud-based marketing SaaS platform called "KARTE", has announced a new investment from Google today that will support PLAID's expansion in Japan and overseas.

Beyond that, collaboration between the companies will see PLAID integrating Google Cloud’s machine learning and artificial intelligence solutions into KARTE. This will accelerate PLAID’s ability to offer enterprise clients a scalable, intelligent and secure cloud platform that enhances and personalizes customer experience. The two companies will also collaborate on expanding cloud opportunities in Japan.

Kenta Kurahashi, Representative Director and CEO, PLAID Inc.:

This investment from Google is the significant first step for the two companies to initiate a multifaceted strategic partnership. I am looking forward to working together with Google to further promote CX (Customer Experience), improve our product performance, and to achieve unprecedented business growth.

“PLAID provides leading solutions for companies that want to enhance their customer user experience through smart analytics,” said Tariq Shaukat. President, Industry Products and Solutions, Google Cloud. “We’re pleased to invest in PLAID to accelerate their growth while furthering support for the broader startup ecosystem in Japan."

About KARTE

“KARTE” is a customer experience (CX) platform that enhances the experience of website visitors and mobile app users. The cloud-based software enables marketers to customize communications to its customers and is applied across a number of industries including e-commerce, human resources, financial and real estate. Launched in March 2015, the annual transaction volume tracked by KARTE within e-commerce has exceeded JPY 1 trillion.

About PLAID, Inc.

PLAID is a technological company that upholds the mission of “maximizing the value of individuals through data”. PLAID officially released the customer experience (CX) platform “KARTE” in 2015, followed by “KARTE for App” for native smartphone applications and a customer data integration platform “KARTE Datahub,” in 2018.