Company's valuation has tripled since June.
Aravind Srinivas, Co-founder and CEO of Perplexity
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Perplexity AI Inc., an AI startup, is developing a search product to compete with Alphabet Inc.'s Google. According to sources, the company has closed a $500 million funding round, bringing its valuation to $9 billion, a threefold increase from its previous figure.
The funding round was led by Institutional Venture Partners and completed earlier this month, the source requested anonymity due to the private nature of the discussions. Perplexity declined to comment.
Even by the high standards of other top AI startups, Perplexity's valuation growth has been exceptionally rapid this year. In April, the company's valuation was $1 billion. By June, after securing investment from SoftBank Group's Vision Fund 2, the figure had risen to $3 billion. The new $9 billion valuation includes the amount from the latest funding round.
This round of funding reflects investors' enthusiasm for redefining online search through generative AI. Founded in 2022, Perplexity differentiates itself from other AI chatbots by providing more real-time information. However, the startup faces increasingly fierce competition: OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, began rolling out search features to all users this week. Microsoft and Google have also significantly improved their search products to include more conversational AI features.
In addition to the paid and free search tools, Perplexity offers a variety of services. The startup has launched a product that allows organizations to search internal files, and introduced new financial-related features, including stock price and corporate earnings data. In March of this year, the company said it had over 15 million active users.
The company has also initiated a series of revenue-sharing partnerships with major publishers, including Time and Fortune, after facing some news agency accusations of plagiarism.
In addition to SoftBank, Perplexity's supporters include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Nvidia Corp.
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