Plug and Play: From Silicon Valley to emerging ecosystems, the accelerator that’s changing the game

Salim: The story begins in the 1990s with our CEO, Saeed Amidi. He owned an office space on University Avenue, right across from Stanford. He began renting it out to local startups, among them Logitech, Danger, and Google. The place quickly became known as the “Lucky Building,” because so many of the startups based there achieved great success. Saeed didn’t just provide space, he also invested in some of them, including Google at a very early stage.

Wanting to go beyond just office space or seed funding, he came up with the idea for Plug and Play. In 2006, he formalized this approach by creating a coworking space in Silicon Valley, coupled with a venture capital arm. But he quickly realized that entrepreneurs needed more than just money; they needed clients, partners, and connections. That’s when he began working with large enterprises to connect them with startups.

Since 2016, Plug and Play has gone global. Today, we’re in over 20 countries with over 60 offices and 700 employees. We have two main activities: venture capital, our core business, with tickets ranging from $50,000 to $2.5 million (investing from Pre-Seed to Series B), and innovation support for large corporations.

Our portfolio of 2,000 companies includes PayPal, Dropbox, N26, as well as French startups Zama and Owkin. As investors, we often act as co-leads or follow-on investors. Our value is twofold: accelerating expansion via our 60+ global offices and providing access to over 550 large corporations across about 25 verticals. Some of our corporate partners include the likes of BNP Paribas, Walmart, Amazon, Mercedes, and Visa, to name a few.

Salim: Our thesis is based on a clear principle: we primarily invest in startups developing software, especially SaaS models, with an enterprise-focused go-to-market. This approach comes in three forms: some startups target large companies from day one, others start with SMEs and scale up, and others, like Bitstack, begin B2C before forming bridges with corporates (like their partnership with AG2R La Mondiale).

SaaS remains at the heart of our strategy because it offers scalability, revenue clarity, and strong demand, even if the narrative nowadays suggests the model is wearing out.

On the tech side, AI is unavoidable. We invest across the entire value chain, starting with the application layer with Paxton or Vaudit all the way to foundational models with companies like Archetype AI, which uses data from the physical world to allow various types of use cases such as predictive maintenance, security, or insurance claims.

We’re also closely watching vertical solutions, especially in FinTech, where we recently invested in MarvelX, an AI agent for financial institutions.

As for founders, we look for ambitious profiles, those who execute quickly, understand enterprise needs, and can build products with strong technical and commercial depth.

Salim: What truly sets Plug and Play apart is our real, local presence in the ecosystems where we invest. We don’t just observe markets remotely; we have teams on the ground, speaking the language, understanding cultural, regulatory, and economic nuances. That changes everything.

For example, we recently invested in Jobo Interim, a startup in Côte d’Ivoire that digitizes temporary staffing. From a European perspective, it’s a well-known model that has existed for years and a solution like that would not necessarily work here. But thanks to our local team, we discovered unique realities: some temp workers travel up to five hours a day, CVs aren’t the norm, and logistics are very different. Without this on-the-ground understanding, we’d have missed the company’s potential and wouldn’t have been able to defend the deal to our investment committee.

Another example: Japan. A very specific market where English is rarely used. Even in technical domains, decision-makers prefer Japanese-language content. When we publish content, we have to fully translate it into Japanese because that’s the only language our partners would read. Having a local team fluent in Japanese and familiar with business etiquette is essential to selling innovation and investing effectively. This helped us launch our first fund this year, supporting startups in Japan.

In short, our global consistency comes from a decentralized but interconnected model. Each office tailors its approach to local specifics while contributing to a shared overall vision.

Salim: Spain is becoming an increasingly dynamic tech ecosystem. We are seeing a strong talent pool and a new generation of ambitious founders. In recent years, we’ve seen many success stories such as Factorial, TravelPerk, or Glovo, emerging from the region. However, despite the volume and quality of opportunities, our broader international funds didn’t always allow us to engage meaningfully in the region, due to bandwidth constraints and the absence of a dedicated investment focus.

That’s why we decided to co-launch a fund specifically tailored to support Spanish entrepreneurs, in partnership with EA Group. This collaboration led to the creation of a €20 million early-stage fund in March 2025, with the goal to back startups based in Spain and to support Spanish founders globally, whether they’re scaling from Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, or San Francisco.

This initiative is part of Plug and Play’s broader strategy of launching targeted thematic and geographic funds. We’ve taken a similar approach in markets like Japan and verticals such as FinTech or Supply Chain. Today, Plug and Play manages 11 funds with external LPs, each designed to maximize value in a specific region or sector.

Salim: FinTech is a strategic vertical for us for several reasons. It’s the sector where we have the most corporate partners: out of the 550 major corporations we work with, around 130 are financial institutions: banks, insurers, asset managers, … Among them: Aflac, Aon, BNP Paribas, Franklin Templeton, MUFG, Prudential, State Farm, TD Bank, US Bank, and Visa.

It’s also the vertical where our portfolio is currently performing best, with several success stories like PayPal, LendingClub, Traxctable, or Rocket Money. This momentum led us to take a strong stance, delivering even more value to FinTech startups by launching a dedicated sector fund. That fund was announced in June 2025 with the backing of nine external LPs, mainly banks and insurers, some of whom are already Plug and Play innovation partners.

Beyond financing, our goal is to maximize the non-financial value we provide to startups in financial services. That means helping them meet sector-specific requirements: compliance, cybersecurity, legal standards, integration into banking systems, etc., all complex barriers for early-stage companies. Thanks to our partner network and deep sector experience, we’re able to guide them through every step.

This fund allows us to better support these startups in key areas and to build concrete bridges with institutional players who may become customers, partners, or strategic investors later down the line.

Salim: Yes, we’re present in several so-called emerging markets: Uzbekistan, Lithuania, Albania, among others. These are strategic expansions, often developed in direct partnership with local governments. Their goal is clear: accelerate the shift to an innovation-driven economy.

They either want to attract international startups, bring back expatriate talent, or export local startups to other markets. In that context, they see Plug and Play as a platform that can bridge their local ecosystem with global innovation standards.

What we gain is valuable insight. These ecosystems may not be fully ready from an infrastructure or regulatory standpoint, but the local entrepreneurs are often highly talented, experienced, and carry ambitious projects.

Because these markets are still under-covered by investors, there’s a unique opportunity to position ourselves early. Our ambition is to be the first to spot local gems, support them, and create leverage through our global network and expertise. By planting roots early, we aim to back the best startups from day one, while also helping governments structure their tech ecosystem.

Salim: Our main hub is undoubtedly our headquarters in Silicon Valley, in Sunnyvale. That’s where it all began, and it remains the heart of our global ecosystem. Twice a year, we host the Sunnyvale Summit, which gathers over 3,000 innovation stakeholders: startups, corporates, investors, partners… It’s a key moment where we consolidate our global network.

Then, we organize our presence around thematic or vertical hubs, as Plug and Play is structured into 25 sector-specific verticals (Fintech, Insurtech, Brand & Retail, Mobility, Real Estate, etc.). Each hub is prioritized based on the strategic sectors it covers and its level of activity.

For instance, in automotive, our Stuttgart hub is a cornerstone. We collaborate there with giants like Mercedes, Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, and have a dedicated building. For FinTech, we have a strong presence in France, including a major partnership with BNP Paribas and collaborations with Caisse Des Depôts, Foyer, the largest insurer in Luxembourg, and many more.

Globally, our key European hubs are Paris and London. In Asia, it’s Singapore and Tokyo. We also have major locations in South America, like São Paulo. The idea is to combine geographic reach with sector specialization to best serve startups and corporates.

Each hub plays a unique role in the global ecosystem. That local modularity, paired with global vision, is our strength.

Salim: What really sets Plug and Play apart is our internal structure, which allows us to be specialized, responsive, and close to our partners. Today, we have over 700 employees worldwide, organized into complementary teams.
First, we have the support teams (marketing, finance, legal, etc.), who keep the machine running. They’re not directly in contact with startups or corporates but ensure operational smoothness, especially regarding investments and corporate contracts.

Then, there are the corporate teams, made up of corporate development managers or account managers. They’re the direct point of contact with our corporate partners. Their role is to understand their business, tech, or strategic needs in detail and translate them clearly to our ventures teams. They’re like antennas within those large companies, identifying the real problems to solve.

Finally, there’s the Ventures team, which I’m part of. A Venture Associate at Plug and Play often plays a dual role: sourcing and analyzing startups for investment, and working closely with corporates to recommend the most relevant startups for their challenges.

There are several factors that set us apart from other players in the ecosystem. The strength of our recommendations comes directly from the volume of startups we engage with and our deep sector expertise. Although I focus primarily on Financial Services, I work alongside colleagues who specialize in other verticals such as Sustainability, Health, and DeepTech. This structure enables each Venture team member to develop deep domain expertise, identify early signals before they become mainstream, and understand what truly works in each industry.

So when I recommend a startup to a partner like BNP Paribas, it will be based on expert insight, marked by a market analysis, a clear understanding of the competitive landscape, and corporate-specific constraints. For example, when working with a major bank, I’ll consider factors such as the business value of the solution, where the data is hosted, and how the solution integrates with core banking systems. That’s what makes our introductions not just “interesting,” but truly actionable and strategic.

Salim: This is a very important topic for us, and in fact, alongside my Partners, Carolin Wais and Thomas Bigagli, I am leading the deployment of these tools for our teams in EMEA. The goal is to move from a mostly manual process to a much more industrialized approach, across: sourcing, due diligence, portfolio monitoring, and overall productivity.

Starting with sourcing, we still rely heavily on classic methods: networks, contacts with other VCs, founders, accelerators… And of course, we do direct outreach, mainly through LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator.

But what we’re actively seeking are new AI-powered tools that can scan the web and detect interesting early signals. We’re currently testing platforms like Signal or Specter, which scrape various sources (LinkedIn, Product Hunt, GitHub, etc.) to automatically identify startups or founders aligned with our thesis.

For the due diligence phase and workflow optimization, we don’t yet have a single unified tool, but we use several complementary ones. For example: Perplexity for deep research, ChatGPT to condense and structure our notes, Granola to record and enrich our conversations with founders…

Some of us also use Delos, a startup we invested in, which combines several of these functions (note-taking, meeting summaries, centralized data). It’s a tool we’re integrating more and more into our daily workflows.

Finally, on portfolio monitoring, we’re currently working on setting up a dedicated tool, potentially AI-enhanced, that will allow us to continuously track the performance of startups we’ve invested in: growth, commercial traction, warning signals… The idea is to detect the right moment to step in, assist, or reinvest.

Building this tool stack is a strategic priority for Plug and Play in Europe. It’s what will enable us to work with a more qualified deal flow and make faster, better-informed decisions.

Salim: I get this question a lot. To give you a concrete figure: last year, I met with about 795 startups. This is the number that was tracked through our internal CRM, where we log every interaction, whether it’s a call, email, or meeting at an event. I believe the actual number is a bit more than that.

That amounts to over 3,500 emails exchanged with founders throughout the year. Our Ventures team is made up of around 250 people, so you can imagine the volume we handle.

But in the end, out of those startups, I only invested in twelve. That reflects our level of selectiveness. The Plug and Play model isn’t about investing at scale, but about carefully choosing the startups where we can truly create value, through our network, hubs, or corporate partners.

Internally, we also rely on a powerful proprietary tool: Playbook. It’s a proprietary database where every startup we meet is invited to create a profile. Unlike databases like Crunchbase, where data is often generic or scraped, Playbook only lists qualified startups: ones we’ve met, understood, and vetted.

Today, the platform includes around 95,000 startups, and every year between 3,000 and 5,000 are added manually by our teams worldwide. This is our core reference tool, which we use to make highly targeted recommendations to our corporate partners.

Salim: One of the most recent and telling examples is Onfido. It’s a startup specialized in online identity verification, a key player in KYC (Know Your Customer). For example, when you open an account with BNP Paribas or Revolut, Onfido may be behind the ID and selfie verification.

Plug and Play invested very early, during their seed round, while they were still in acceleration. What’s interesting is that we later helped them commercially, by connecting them with over 100 major companies: banks, insurers, retailers… These connections generated millions of euros in annual recurring revenue (ARR). Last year, the company was sold for an amount between €450 million and €650 million. A major success story for us, especially since I personally contributed to some of the introductions, including BNP Paribas.

Other cases include FiscalNote (IPO), Hippo Insurance (IPO), or Kustomer (Acquired by Meta). We’re also still involved with companies that are already success stories in their own right, like N26, the German neobank. We invested very early, with a small ticket that gave us significant early-stage equity. We supported them throughout their growth, and today they’re valued at several billion euros.

Salim: Our ambitions in Europe revolve around two main pillars: expanding our investment activities and strengthening our innovation support for corporations and governments.

On the investment side, Plug and Play historically operated like a family office. But in recent years, we’ve shifted toward launching thematic and geographic funds. Today, we manage over $1 billion in assets, and we aim to scale that further. That means launching more targeted funds, whether by verticals (FinTech, Sustainability, Future of Commerce, Supply Chain) or by regions, like we’ve already done in Spain or Japan.

Our goal in Europe is to replicate this model in other countries, such as Germany or France, with investment vehicles that are locally rooted but globally connected.

On the innovation side, we want to continue working closely with large corporations, helping them adopt new technologies through startups. But we also want to deepen our engagement with governments, something we’ve already started in several countries.

For example, this year, our Managing Director in France was invited to a state dinner at the Élysée, in the presence of the French President. That was a first for Plug and Play and a strong sign of recognition. We want to multiply these types of institutional collaborations, like we’ve done in Albania and Lithuania, and launch similar partnerships in France, especially with public actors.

Finally, we want to expand beyond Paris and strengthen our presence in the south of France, especially in Marseille. We’ve already held a large Expo there recently, and our ambition is clear: to be visible and active across the whole country, not just in the capital.

From Silicon Valley to the most unexpected hubs, Plug and Play doesn’t just invest, it weaves a global web of innovation, where every promising startup can find a market, a partner, and a future. With on-the-ground presence, increasingly specialized verticals, and a vision that blends technology with execution, the model continues to grow without ever losing sight of its core mission: spot early, connect fast, scale sustainably.