Ply comes out of stealth to announce its no-code customization platform, allowing organizations to build custom internal features into the apps they already use. Instead of buying or building another app, Ply allows adding contextual solutions into apps like Gmail, Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot and others - at scale. Co-Founded by CEO Yaniv Tross, COO Zohar Sakal-Glikman, and CTO Guy Schlider in 2021, the company has raised $5 million in funding from Aleph, Slow Ventures, Samsung Next and executives from Salesforce, Google and Atlassian.

Ply is a new breed of no-code platform, focused on contextual solutions. It's built around small pieces of software, aptly named “features”, which enrich existing apps' functionality. One such feature is add-ons, which allow adding buttons and interfaces inside apps, and use data from the item the user is currently viewing, like an email, a deal or a ticket. For example, you can add features to Gmail that get or send Salesforce data, based on the sender of the email you’re viewing. Another feature type is notifications, which lets builders not only define when a notification is sent, but also create custom post-click functionality for approvals, feedback and quick contextual actions. Other features include command bar tools, customer portals and more - all based on existing apps.

“Over the last decade, countless low/no-code tools have emerged to allow building automations, tools and databases. While some use-cases require a new dedicated tool, most of the time having a contextual solution is 10x more effective. It’s more productive, faster to create, easier to onboard to, and effortless to adopt. But mostly, it’s what users actually want,” said Yaniv Tross, Ply’s CEO. “Think about it this way, when a software company wants to solve a problem for its users, it doesn’t create an entire new product. It adds a feature where the problem is. Ply is making this the reality for ops and internal product teams too.”

The contextual nature of Ply is a key enabler for AI. Context awareness is one the biggest challenges in creating high-value AI applications. With Ply, organizations can create custom contextual AI solutions with ease. Aside from being context aware, the platform comes with a native integration to openAI, a prebuilt prompt interface and more tools to leverage contextual AI.

Ply’s innovative permissioning and security controls let enterprise customers adopt fast continuous change, without the headache. The platform’s matrix approach to permissions allows IT teams to define the exact level of freedom builders have - unleashing innovation, without the risk associated with wide access. Additionally, Ply’s Synced Groups makes it a breeze to manage permissions at scale. It allows admins to provide access to features based on permissions in the destination app, by syncing its permission structure back to Ply.

The company has been in closed beta, working with teams in small companies and enterprises. “We’ve seen an interesting process with nearly all of our customers, regardless of their size. They start with simple hacks to eliminate copying and pasting like ‘send ticket to slack’, and within a few weeks, they’re building complex business logic into vendor apps - things like sales playbooks, employee onboarding and legal approvals,” said Tross. “We started out building Ply for ops and IT, which are still our main customers, but we’ve quickly discovered that people in almost every role are building features. It’s an intuitive need - if you’ve ever said to yourself ‘I wish Gmail could do that thing’ then you get it. From developers to account executives and CSMs, everyone has an itch they want to scratch with Ply.”