Montreal-based startup Deck has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round, just nine months after closing its seed financing, to build infrastructure for user-permissioned data access across the entire internet. The new raise, led by Infinity Ventures, brings Deck's total raised since its January 2024 inception to $16.5 million.

Deck's founders, President Frederick Lavoie, CEO Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf, and CTO Bruno Lambert, aim to create a platform that allows users to connect any account online and turn the information into structured, usable data with full user permission. The startup's approach is to treat the web itself as an open platform, operating under the premise that users have "tons of valuable data" locked behind usernames, passwords, and session-based portals with no real way to share it securely.

Deck's browser-based data agents "unlock" the data from any website through automation, making it easier for developers to access the data users already have without manual work. The startup's goal is to make it easier for developers to access the data users already have, similar to how Plaid gave developers an easy, secure way to access bank account data with user permission.

The founders, who previously started Flinks, a startup dubbed the "Plaid for Canada" that was acquired by the National Bank of Canada in 2021 for about US$140 million, saw the need for a platform like Deck after hearing from entrepreneurs across industries about the difficulties of accessing data from various websites. They believe that recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have underscored the urgency of open access to non-financial data, as AI risks being trained on outdated, biased, or incomplete information without it.

Initially, Deck has been focused on working with utility companies, having connected to over 100,000 utility providers in more than 40 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia. The startup is also working with non-utility customers and believes that its technology can be applied to any industry where data is "trapped" in online accounts.

Deck has seen rapid growth, with the number of developers building on its platform growing drastically in the last couple of months. The startup's pricing model is performance-driven, charging clients based on "successful" API calls. Deck relies only on explicit user consent to connect and collect data, following the open data international trend initiated by open banking.

The company claims to have proprietary technologies to avoid being labeled as bots or crawlers, including vision computing and human-like mouse movement. Deck soon plans to launch a data vertical creator, which it claims will let any developer "get up and running for any data verticals for any industry… in no time."

Jeremy Jonker, co-founder and managing partner at Infinity Ventures, believes that Deck is "transforming" the user-permissioned data sector, "just as open banking reshaped financial data." Jonker has joined Deck's board as part of the financing. Intact Ventures, along with previous backers Better Tomorrow Ventures, Golden, and Luge Capital, also participated in the Series A financing.

With its new funding, Deck plans to continue building its platform and expanding its team, which currently has 30 employees. As the startup continues to grow, it will be interesting to see how its technology is adopted across various industries and how it shapes the future of user-permissioned data access.