# Kate Adamson

> Kate Adamson is the CEO and co-founder of Folio, a financial operations platform built for hotels. A former pre-professional ballet dancer who studied engineering at Princeton before switching to economics, she spent five years at Plaid scaling sales and product teams, where she once shipped a Paycheck Protection Program product from idea to market in about eight days. In 2023 she teamed up with Plaid's founding designer Al Hertz to build Folio, which turns the messy world of hotel purchasing, invoices, and payments into one procure-to-pay platform. Folio won the E20X Judge's Choice Award at HITEC 2024 and raised a $14M Series A led by Thrive Capital and Construct Capital in July 2025.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at Folio
- **Organizations:** Folio, MIRA, Plaid, Thrive Capital, JPMorgan Chase
- **From:** Washington, D.C., United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.A. in Economics, minor in Dance (began in engineering), Princeton University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Folio, a procure-to-pay platform serving hundreds of hotels, Raised a $14M Series A in July 2025 led by Thrive Capital and Construct Capital, Won the E20X Judge's Choice Award for top new startup at HITEC 2024

## Career timeline

- **Pre-college** — Pre-professional dancer with the Washington Ballet
- **Princeton** — Started in engineering, switched to economics with a minor in dance
- **Early career** — Senior Associate at JPMorgan Chase in the Office of the COO and Office of Regulatory Affairs
- **2017** — Joined Plaid as one of its earliest go-to-market hires (~13 employees)
- **2017-2022** — Scaled Plaid's sales team from 2 to 50+, then moved into product leadership as Head of Credit Product and Head of Mortgage; led the Financial Inclusion Team
- **2020** — Led development of a Paycheck Protection Program product, taking it from concept to market in about 8 days
- **2023** — Co-founded Folio with Al Hertz; became CEO (May 2023)
- **2024** — Folio won the E20X Judge's Choice Award at HITEC 2024
- **2025** — Folio raised a $14M Series A led by Thrive Capital and Construct Capital

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Folio, a procure-to-pay platform serving hundreds of hotels
- Raised a $14M Series A in July 2025 led by Thrive Capital and Construct Capital
- Won the E20X Judge's Choice Award for top new startup at HITEC 2024
- Shipped a PPP loan product at Plaid from concept to market in roughly 8 days during COVID-19
- Scaled Plaid's sales organization from 2 to more than 50 people
- Named a 2019 HousingWire Woman of Influence
- Holds the CFA charter and Series 7 and 63 licenses

## Latest updates

- **2025-07** — Folio announced a $14M Series A led by Thrive Capital and Construct Capital, with Redseed VC and SciFi VC participating.
- **2025** — Folio launched Folio Inventory, a fast stock-counting tool, expanding beyond procurement, bills, and payments.
- **2024** — Folio won the E20X Judge's Choice Award at HITEC 2024 and grew to power purchasing across hundreds of hotels.

## Links

- Website: https://folio.co
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hikateadamson/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/kate-adamson
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-11