Home Industry Startups Perplexity in talks for $9 bil...
Startups
Business Fortune
21 October, 2024
According to a person familiar with the situation, Perplexity AI Inc., an artificial intelligence startup developing a search tool to rival Google, is in early discussions to raise money from investors at a valuation of roughly $9 billion.
The source, who wished to remain anonymous while discussing private information, stated that the corporation is looking to raise over $500 million in the investment round.
The company's prior worth of $3 billion from a capital round earlier this year may be tripled by the new assessment, which takes into account the amount it would raise. But since the talks are still in their early stages, the specifics could alter or the conversation could end. The business refused to comment.
The huge increase in Perplexity's valuation in recent months is indicative of venture funders' strong desire to support AI startups. The startup was only worth $1 billion as recently as April of this year. Large sums of money have also been raised by its competitors and colleagues, such as OpenAI, which earlier this month closed a $6.6 billion financing at a $157 billion valuation.
According to the source, Perplexity's most recent funding discussions happened after investors reached out to the business, not because the startup wanted to seek more money.
In addition to the free and commercial versions of its search tool, Perplexity provides a number of other services. In addition to introducing additional tools for searches connected to money, such as stock prices and corporate earnings data, it also developed a solution that enables organizations to search internal files in addition to the internet.
Despite being accused of plagiarism by some news publications, the firm has also established a number of revenue-sharing agreements with large publishers.
Nvidia Corp., Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com Inc., and SoftBank Group Corp.'s Vision Fund 2 are among the company's investors.