Montreal-based tech startup Deck, which aims to revolutionize data accessibility across the internet, has successfully raised $12 million in a Series A funding round. The announcement comes just nine months after its seed round, marking a rapid rise for the young company.
The latest funding round was led by Infinity Ventures and boosts Deck’s total capital raised to $16.5 million since its inception in January 2024. Earlier investors Golden Ventures and Better Tomorrow Ventures also returned to support the company in this new phase of growth.
What Deck Is Building: A New Era of User-Permissioned Data Access
Deck brands itself as building the “Plaid for the rest of the internet.” While Plaid famously enabled developers to tap into financial data through secure APIs, Deck wants to bring that same functionality to the 95% of platforms without APIs — including utility services, payroll systems, e-commerce sites, and even government portals.
At the heart of Deck’s mission is user consent. The company enables individuals to connect their online accounts — regardless of the platform — and transform the data within them into clean, structured, and usable formats. All of this is done with full user permission, respecting both privacy and compliance standards.
How Deck Works: Browser Automation Meets AI
Deck has developed browser-based automation tools known as “data agents” that simulate how a human user would access data. These AI-powered agents can log into websites, navigate through dashboards, and collect relevant information efficiently and securely.
According to CEO Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf, once a user authorizes a connection, Deck takes over the process behind the scenes. The agents not only collect data in real-time but also generate scripts that keep those connections alive for future use — no ongoing AI interaction required.
Solving a Universal Problem: Locked and Fragmented Data
The concept behind Deck was born out of a recurring challenge across industries: valuable user data is often locked behind login credentials and session-based platforms that offer no straightforward export options. Leboeuf, along with President Frederick Lavoie and CTO Bruno Lambert, co-founded the company in June 2024 to solve this problem.
All three founders have experience in this space. Leboeuf and Lavoie previously co-founded Flinks, a Canadian fintech startup acquired in 2021 by the National Bank of Canada for approximately $140 million. Lambert, who was among Flinks’ early engineers, joined them to form Deck.
Inspiration from Real-World Data Frustrations
After the acquisition of Flinks, the founding team engaged with entrepreneurs across various industries to identify pressing data challenges. They discovered a consistent theme: businesses were struggling to access their own data.
One startup had critical sales data buried in dozens of outdated distributor portals. Another had spent months attempting to extract music royalty data — a delay that prevented artists from claiming over a billion dollars in unpaid royalties. Even the Deck founders themselves encountered similar frustrations, reinforcing their vision that the internet’s data infrastructure needed a major upgrade.
Deck’s Competitive Edge and Use Cases
While other companies like Arcadia operate in this space, Deck differentiates itself with its AI-driven approach and platform flexibility. Deck can connect to any online platform, making it highly adaptable to different industries.
Initial traction has been strongest in the utility sector. Deck claims it has integrated with more than 100,000 utility providers across 40 countries, including markets in North America, Europe, and Asia. Some of its notable customers include EnergyCAP, Quadient, and Greenly.
But its technology is not limited to utilities. Other early adopters include Notes.fm (a music data platform), Glowtify (e-commerce analytics), and Evive Smoothies (a DTC wellness brand). Essentially, any business that deals with fragmented digital data stands to benefit from Deck’s solution.
Platform Architecture: Built for Developers, Backed by AI
Deck has positioned itself as a bridge between application developers and underlying browser automation tools. The platform takes care of complex backend tasks such as authentication, consent handling, data normalization, rate limiting, and antibot protections — offering a streamlined development experience.
By abstracting these challenges into reusable modules, Deck enables developers to build custom data access solutions in minutes instead of months. Its platform is compatible with AI operators like Playwright, Browser Use, and OpenAI Operator, giving developers plenty of flexibility.
User-Friendly Pricing and Rapid Growth
Deck operates a performance-based pricing model. Clients are only charged for successful data extractions, ensuring value for every dollar spent. This approach has helped the startup rapidly expand its user base.
In February alone, the number of successful account connections on the platform surged by over 120% compared to the previous month. The growth has been especially strong among developers, who are increasingly leveraging Deck’s APIs to integrate real-time data into their applications.
Regulatory Outlook and Consent-Based Access
Deck emphasizes that its platform is fully built around user consent. While some websites may have terms of service that discourage automation, Deck aligns itself with global open data initiatives — like those pioneered by open banking laws — which affirm a user’s right to access and share their own data.
CEO Leboeuf argues that consumers and businesses alike should be able to control their digital data, regardless of the platform where it resides. Deck’s dual-consent approach ensures that both the end user and the client using the data agree on its access and usage.
The company also deploys proprietary technologies to avoid detection by anti-bot systems. These include computer vision techniques, human-like cursor movements, and other advanced behavioral simulations that mimic genuine user activity.
No Model Training Yet — But Future Plans Are Ambitious
For now, Deck does not use the collected data to train AI models. Instead, its focus remains on improving the reliability and scalability of data extraction. However, the company is planning to roll out a new feature called the “Data Vertical Creator,” which will allow developers to quickly build custom integrations for any industry — without extensive coding.
With just 30 employees, Deck is already making waves. As the company scales, it may broaden its services and even begin exploring opportunities in data enrichment, analytics, or AI model training — with consent, of course.
For more information, read this article: Deck raises $12M to ‘Plaid-ify’ any website using AI
Backers and Vision for the Future
Jeremy Jonker, co-founder and managing partner at Infinity Ventures, has joined Deck’s board as part of the Series A financing. He believes that Deck is on track to transform data access across sectors just as open banking reshaped financial services.
Other investors participating in the Series A include Intact Ventures, Luge Capital, and existing backers Better Tomorrow Ventures and Golden Ventures.
According to Jonker, Deck’s modular architecture and developer-friendly tools position it as a long-term leader in the user-permissioned data market. “They’ve productized a messy, technical challenge into something reliable, scalable, and fast,” he said.
Final Thoughts
Deck’s vision of a more connected, accessible internet is one that resonates across industries. By treating the web itself as an open platform and empowering users to share their data on their terms, Deck is paving the way for a new generation of applications powered by real-time, user-consented data.
As businesses increasingly demand smarter, faster, and more ethical ways to access and use data, Deck is stepping in to fill a critical gap — one API call at a time.
