Perplexity AI Secures at $520 Million in Funding from Bezos, Nvidia
The startup Perplexity AI secured $73.6 million in funding from investors such as Nvidia and Jeff Bezos, marking a trend where investors seek out AI startups that rival established companies. The funding round, spearheaded by venture capital firm IVP, valued the company at approximately $520 million, as stated by Perplexity AI. Additional participants in the funding round included NEA, NVIDIA, Databricks, and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Perplexity AI, headquartered in San Francisco, California, has developed search tools that offer immediate answers to queries accompanied by sources and citations. These tools utilize a range of large language models (LLMs), including OpenAI and Meta's Llama, capable of summarizing and producing information. In March of the previous year, the company raised $25.6 million in a funding round led by NEA. Perplexity AI reported servicing over 500 million queries in 2023 with minimal marketing expenses.
The recent funding is earmarked for expanding the team and enhancing product development. Presently comprising 38 employees, the company aims to increase its workforce to around 60 by the year's end. Its online platforms, including the website and mobile web, observed 45 million visits in December. This figure demonstrates substantial growth from the 2.2 million visits recorded when the service was launched in December 2022, according to data from Similarweb. Despite this rapid expansion, Perplexity AI remains unprofitable and generates annual revenue in the single-digit millions. In the online search market, where Google holds around 90% market share, the company's aspirations are considered ambitious.
While Microsoft, as a supporter of OpenAI, has been integrating AI into its Bing search engine over the past year, it has not significantly dented Google's dominant market position. Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, believes the startup's advantage lies in its focused approach and ability to fine-tune various high-performing AI models instead of solely relying on a single model. Srinivas envisions Google as an outdated legacy platform, contrasting Perplexity as the next-generation and future of search technology.
Perplexity AI, headquartered in San Francisco, California, has developed search tools that offer immediate answers to queries accompanied by sources and citations. These tools utilize a range of large language models (LLMs), including OpenAI and Meta's Llama, capable of summarizing and producing information. In March of the previous year, the company raised $25.6 million in a funding round led by NEA. Perplexity AI reported servicing over 500 million queries in 2023 with minimal marketing expenses.
The recent funding is earmarked for expanding the team and enhancing product development. Presently comprising 38 employees, the company aims to increase its workforce to around 60 by the year's end. Its online platforms, including the website and mobile web, observed 45 million visits in December. This figure demonstrates substantial growth from the 2.2 million visits recorded when the service was launched in December 2022, according to data from Similarweb. Despite this rapid expansion, Perplexity AI remains unprofitable and generates annual revenue in the single-digit millions. In the online search market, where Google holds around 90% market share, the company's aspirations are considered ambitious.
While Microsoft, as a supporter of OpenAI, has been integrating AI into its Bing search engine over the past year, it has not significantly dented Google's dominant market position. Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, believes the startup's advantage lies in its focused approach and ability to fine-tune various high-performing AI models instead of solely relying on a single model. Srinivas envisions Google as an outdated legacy platform, contrasting Perplexity as the next-generation and future of search technology.
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