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AI search startup Perplexity raises $74 million at $520 million valuation

Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Jan 4, 2024
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Update –

  • Added further funding information

Update from January 4, 2024:

According to the Wall Street Journal, Perplexity has raised $74 million in funding from backers including Jeff Bezos and Institutional Venture Partners. Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and a senior Google VP focused on AI research, Jeff Dean, have also invested in Perplexity.

Perplexity's "answer engine" has attracted about 10 million monthly users, and the company is now valued at $520 million. Perplexity has about 40 employees and is less than two years old.

According to SimiliarWeb, the startup's website and mobile apps received 53 million visits in November, up significantly from 2.2 million visits in December 2022. The company's growth has come solely through word of mouth and buzz on X, the founders say.

Original article from October 26, 2023:

Venture capital firm IVP is leading an investment in Perplexity, a developer of an AI-powered search engine that competes primarily with Google's SGE and, at a distance, with chat-based tools like Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's ChatGPT with Browsing. Perplexity uses both of these rivals' LLMs to power its search-focused service.

The deal values the year-old company at about $500 million, up from a post-investment valuation of $150 million in a previous funding round in March. Perplexity had $3 million in annual recurring revenue as of this month and is in talks to raise about $50 million.

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