Bengaluru: Even as Indian AI wearables companies look to the US to sell their products, US-based Plaud is betting on India, where growth is outpacing its global business, according to a senior company executive.
“On a global level, we're seeing 10x growth annually. India's growth is higher than that benchmark,” said Megumi Yoshinaga, head of APAC marketing at Plaud told Mint.
The company has scaled rapidly since its 2023 launch in the US. In June, Plaud said its annual recurring revenue has crossed $100 million and it has sold over 2 million devices. Plaud launched through crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, where it raised more than $1 million through pre-orders. It currently sells four devices globally, including in India.
Plaud has been selling its devices in India since 2025, through both its own website and Amazon. It is now expanding offline through retail partnerships.
The company's expansion into India comes at a time when India's wearables market is estimated to hit $3.6 billion in 2026. It is projected to grow to $10.3 billion by 2031 at a compound annual growth rate of 23%, according to market research company Mordor Intelligence.
Smartwatches account for the bulk of the market, with a 62.78% share, while health and fitness tracking accounted for 53.82% of the Indian smart wearables market in 2025, according to the research firm.
Interestingly, homegrown brands in the AI wearables space, like NeoSapien and Antimattr have chosen to sell in the US. NeoSapien expects the US to contribute 30% of its revenue over time, according to a PTI report.
Experts say the reason that India hasn’t produced as-of-yet noteworthy AI hardware companies in the wearables space stems primarily from a lack of localized supply chains in specialized ultra-low powered components, such as microcontrollers. The other aspect is that while venture capital investors are still looking for AI opportunities, hardware isn’t really on top of the priority list.
“If you compare it to SaaS (software-as-a-service) or fintech where margins are higher, AI wearable opportunities don’t have the same return on investment,” said Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research. “Additionally, the business model here has to be subscription-based, which isn’t exactly sticky, especially when you add the hefty pricepoint of a wearable to it.”
Localizing in India
India's importance to Plaud is also being driven by signals from existing users. Yoshinaga said the company has seen Indian customers travel to Singapore, the US and other markets to purchase its devices, with some visiting airports to see and buy the product before returning home.
Plaud is now looking to build a more active presence in India through a combination of offline retail, local hiring and after-sales support. The company plans to work with local retail partners so that customers can see and handle its devices before buying them. The company said its devices are currently available through “select SME channels” and it is currently in discussions with “larger retail partners” to expand its offline distribution further.
“Last year, we didn’t have a dedicated India team. Everything was online, light touch,” Yoshinaga said. “This year, every team for Plaud is local. We've hired local, we also have local partners.”
The company, however, has no immediate plans to open its own stores, for the time being. Instead, it wants to spend time learning the Indian market before committing to launching its own store.
High frequency users of Plaud's products include people whose day-to-day involves lots of conversation such as business owners and founders, as well as lawyers, doctors, bankers and investors.
The company's products can transcribe several languages, including several Indian ones, including Tamil, Punjabi, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, Assamese, to name a few. Plaud's engineering teams have had to develop the product in such a way that it accounts for accurate transcription in a multilingual market.
“People code-switch, changing from Hindi to English to other languages. There's also different kinds of local English, which come with their own accents,” Yoshinaga said. It's part of Plaud's approach of combining a global product with local adaptations.
Plaud's Note Pro is priced at ₹20,990, while the Note Pin is at ₹19,990, broadly in line with its global pricing. Subscription plans are also expected to remain at similar levels. “We believe expensive or cheap is a subjective term,” Yoshinaga said, arguing that professionals would value the time saved through the device.