A Perplexity, an artificial intelligence startup that provides internet search services, is finalizing a funding round that will value the company at $14 billion, a $5 billion jump from its valuation six months ago. The $500 million round is being led by venture capital firm Accel. This will be Perplexityâs fifth funding round in less than 18 months, the company reported. Financial Times.
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Perplexity, which seeks to break the two-decade dominance of Google in the search market, is one of the new AI startups that have attracted intense investor interest. The San Francisco-based company closed its previous round in December at a $9 billion valuation. Previous investors include Nvidia, New Enterprise Associates, IVP and Vision Fund 2 of SoftBank. Big names in technology also support the company, such as Jeff Bezos, Andrej Karpathy, Jeff Dean and Yann LeCun.
rival of Google and Open AI
Perplexity offers an AI search chatbot that rivals the offerings of Google and the OpenAI. CEO Aravind Srinivas has said the company needs more capital to fund its future products and grow its user base. The company recently launched a voice mode, allowing users to instruct AI search through voice commands on devices. Apple.
Perplexity plans to launch an âagentâ browser, called Comet, that searches online autonomously, similar to a human. The main reason for the latest funding round is to develop this browser, which aims to replace the Google Chrome.
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Perplexity generates most of its revenue through premium subscriptions. The company employs around 200 people.
