Perplexity AI, a company specializing in AI-powered search engines, has recently concluded a successful funding round, securing $62.7 million and elevating its valuation to $1.04 billion. Leading this investment endeavor was Daniel Gross, former AI head at Y Combinator, with significant contributions from notable individuals and entities such as Stan Druckenmiller, NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos, Tobi Lutke, Garry Tan, Andrej Karpathy, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Nat Friedman, Institutional Venture Partners, and New Enterprise Associates. Aravind Srinivas, the CEO, made this announcement on the social platform X, highlighting the allocation of funds towards expanding its consumer base and bolstering its presence within enterprises.
Established in 2022 in San Francisco, the company previously raised $74 million in January, leading to a valuation of $540 million. Its recent endeavors involve integrating AI with chatbot technology, utilizing cutting-edge large language models like GPT-4, Claude 3, and Mistral Large to address user inquiries. Additionally, Perplexity AI has introduced an enterprise-oriented product, Perplexity Enterprise Pro, offering advanced features such as SOC2 compliance, single sign-on, user management, and enhanced security measures, available for $40 monthly or $400 annually per seat.
Strategic partnerships with major telecommunications firms including Deutsche Telekom, SoftBank, and SK Telecom aim to extend its global reach to over 116 million users. Noteworthy early adopters across various industries such as Databricks, Stripe, and Zoom utilize the search engine for specialized purposes such as market research and sales strategy enhancement.
