Perplexity AI
Private
AI Search
Founded 2022San Francisco, CA~400 employees
- Valuation
- $20B(Sep 2025, last finalised round)
- Total Funding
- $1.22B+
- Revenue
- $500M ARR(Apr 2026, +335% YoY)
- Profit Status
- Pre-profit,explosive revenue growth
- Employees
- ~400
About Perplexity AI
Perplexity AI is building a new kind of search engine that combines LLMs with real-time web search to provide cited, accurate answers. Used by researchers, journalists, and knowledge workers.
Company History
Founded Dec 2022. Built Sonar search-optimized LLM. Perplexity Assistant (agentic) Jan 2025. $18B valuation Mar 2025. $22.6B valuation Series E Jan 9, 2026. $500M ARR by Apr 2026. 100M+ MAU. Samsung Galaxy S26 deep OS integration. Perplexity Personal Computer (Mac Mini M4 bundle) Feb 2026. Comet browser launched Jul 2025 at $200/mo, went free Mar 18, 2026. Committed $750M to Microsoft Azure.
Funding Rounds
4 rounds| Date | Round | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Series B | $73.6M | IVP, NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos |
| Dec 2024 | Series D | $500M | SoftBank, $9B valuation |
| Sep 2025 | Series E | $200M | $20B valuation |
| Jan 2026 | Series E ext. | $500M+ | $22.6B valuation |
Products & Services
4- Perplexity Pro
- Perplexity API
- Perplexity iOS/Android
- Perplexity Enterprise
People & ecosystem
Key People
- Aravind Srinivas (CEO)
- Denis Yarats (CTO)
- Johnny Ho
- Andy Konwinski
Key Investors
- Jeff Bezos
- NVIDIA
- SoftBank
- IVP
- NEA
- Databricks
Competitive Landscape
- Google Search / Gemini
- Bing Copilot
- ChatGPT Search
- You.com