Plaud erhält Investitionen von einem führenden Großunternehmen und hat derzeit einen Schätzwert von 2 Milliarden US-Dollar | Exklusiv von Hard Krypton

Autor/in | Huang Nan, Zhou Xinyu

Redakteur/in | Yuan Silai, Yang Xuan

Hard Kr has exclusive information that the AI card voice recorder company Plaud received financing from Tencent in the middle of 2025, and its valuation reached 1 billion US dollars. Currently, the valuation of Plaud has risen to about 2 billion US dollars. At the same time, Hard Kr learned from relevant sources that Plaud is promoting hardware cooperation with Tencent Meeting.

Regarding the above information, Hard Kr verified with Plaud and Tencent, and both parties said the news was untrue.

A person close to Plaud told Hard Kr that Plaud's total revenue in 2024 was about 56 million US dollars, with a profit margin close to 20%. "The revenue in 2025 almost tripled." Another insider revealed that Plaud's annual revenue in 2025 reached an all - time high, and the shipment volume of all products in the Chinese mainland met the internal expectations.

However, Plaud's shipment volume is not high. An industry insider told Hard Kr that its sales volume in the domestic market may not have exceeded 100,000 units. Obviously, it is difficult for Plaud to replicate the rapid growth it had overseas in the past few years.

Plaud's rise caught the wave of the AI voice - recording hardware boom triggered by ChatGPT. In 2023, the pain point that iPhones in the overseas market could not provide call - recording functions made the AI card voice recorder Plaud Note quickly gain popularity. This device, which is only 2.9 millimeters thick and supports magnetic charging, integrates a multi - microphone array. After connecting to a large - scale model, it can realize real - time transcription of dozens of languages, generate meeting minutes, and perform multi - language translation, meeting the urgent needs of overseas users for call and meeting records.

Subsequently, Plaud's overseas market experienced explosive growth and quickly joined the ranks of unicorns. Official data shows that in July 2025, Plaud's global sales volume exceeded one million units. Its pioneering AI voice - recording products achieved ten - fold growth in the previous two years. Xu Gao, the co - founder of Plaud, also revealed in an interview with Forbes in November of the same year that Plaud's total revenue in 2025 was expected to reach 250 million US dollars.

Behind the rapid growth are the natural dividends and first - mover advantages of the overseas market. "The core reason why Plaud was able to succeed in the early stage was that it seized the first - mover opportunity in a single form. At that time, no one was making such a thin and light voice - recording device that could be magnetically attached to a mobile phone and integrated a large - scale model. Overseas users had no alternative options," the person in charge of a leading AI hardware company told Hard Kr.

Relying on its overseas brand influence, Plaud started to layout the Chinese market. An insider told Hard Kr that as early as the beginning of 2025, Plaud began preparations for its business in the Chinese mainland. Initially, it chose to enter the medical and financial industries and used B2B professional services as a breakthrough point for implementation.

In September 2025, Plaud launched three products, Plaud Note, NotePin S, and Note Pro, targeting consumer users in the Chinese mainland, with prices of 1,149 yuan, 1,249 yuan, and 1,299 yuan respectively.

From left to right: Plaud Note Pro, Plaud NotePin S, Plaud Note (Source/Enterprise)

It can be seen that Plaud's overall pricing is higher than that of domestic similar competitors, but there is no substantial difference in core functions. After entering the Chinese mainland, the brand and supply - chain advantages that Plaud had accumulated overseas almost became ineffective, and development bottlenecks gradually emerged. "A mature supply - chain system means that the cost of replicating products in China will be very low. The Chinese market will be more competitive," a former Plaud employee told Hard Kr.

In terms of hardware structure, Plaud has a weak moat. Its form is easy to be replicated, and its core magnetic - card design does not have a high engineering barrier. Relying on the complete audio - hardware supply chain in China, peer manufacturers can quickly replicate its appearance and even surpass it in miniaturization technology, noise - reduction audio collection, and hardware tuning.

Even if Plaud later launched new - form products such as Pin, it only made minor adjustments to the appearance and wearing method. It did not achieve subversive innovation in the scene experience and failed to extend to diverse recording scenarios such as life and entertainment, making it difficult to stimulate users' repurchase and device - replacement needs.

Secondly, in terms of software, Plaud's AI functions are not exclusive, and the tool attributes are homogeneous. Core capabilities such as real - time transcription, meeting summaries, and multi - language translation are all based on the open capabilities of general large - scale models, making it difficult to form exclusive underlying technologies. An industry insider commented to Hard Kr: "AI gave Plaud a growth dividend, but it failed to build its own technical barriers. With the rapid iteration speed of domestic apps and large - scale models, similar functions can be quickly replicated. And this is indeed the case at present."

More importantly, after the entry of office - ecosystem giants, they directly outflanked startups like Plaud. In August 2025, DingTalk launched the AI voice - recording card DingTalk A1; in January 2026, Anker jointly launched the "AI voice - recording bean" with ByteDance, further intensifying the competition in the market. As a Plaud employee commented: "The speed at which domestic giants enter the market far exceeds expectations. The strategy in 2026 must be more competitive."

Plaud has long been confined to a single scenario of office and call recording, which is exactly the home field of DingTalk and Feishu's ecosystems. Enterprise users already use DingTalk and Feishu for office collaboration deeply. These platforms natively have functions such as meeting recording, intelligent minutes, and document linkage, so there is no need to purchase additional hardware separately, directly diverting a large number of Plaud's core customer groups.

Now, the AI voice - recording hardware market is becoming increasingly crowded. Leading technology manufacturers such as Dreame and Mobvoi have quickly launched similar products. Plaud must rely on a large company to build its model capabilities to have a chance of surviving in the domestic market.

Coincidentally, Tencent also needs a hardware foothold to quickly join the war in the smart - hardware field.

An insider told Hard Kr that previously, Tencent Meeting and WeCom had established a hardware project team to explore the combination with hardware such as mobile phones and watches. "Tencent will not give up the hardware entry point."

Another reason for Tencent's rapid entry into the hardware market is that the growth of office software is gradually reaching its ceiling.

An industry insider mentioned that even though Tencent Meeting's revenue has increased several times in the past two years, the internal overall judgment of the market is that "the growth dividend of AI - driven software will soon disappear, and hardware will be the new growth curve."

"Tencent Meeting has long thought that since Tencent Meeting is positioned as a meeting tool, its ultimate form should cover not only the online but also the offline. The best foothold to cover the offline at present is hardware, especially voice recorders that conform to users' note - taking habits," the above - mentioned person said.

Tencent said the above information was untrue.

If Tencent's investment in Plaud is finalized, all three major AI companies have laid out in the AI voice - recording hardware market. And their influence obviously extends beyond the voice - recording scenario. They will launch hardware covering multiple scenarios around their office software, ultimately forming a wider and deeper moat. The office scenario has witnessed a comprehensive war of software + hardware among giants.