AI Startup Takes On Search Giants With $73.6M Backing
Perplexity AI, a startup building an AI-native search engine, has raised $73.6 million in series B funding to take on Google and Microsoft Bing. The company plans to use the funds to build out its conversational, ad-free search offering.
Summary
- Perplexity AI raised $73.6 million in a series B round from investors including IVP, NEA, Databricks, and Bessemer Ventures.
- Several tech visionaries like Jeff Bezos, Elad Gil, and Shopify's CEO also invested.
- The company has now raised $100 million total at a $500 million+ valuation.
- Perplexity offers an AI-powered search engine focused on providing accurate, transparent answers efficiently, without ads or spam.
- The search experience is conversational, delivering just the required information without clicks or comparisons needed.
- A free version is available, plus a $20/month Pro version with advanced AI models and more capabilities.
- Perplexity already serves over 10 million monthly users and over half a billion yearly queries. But huge growth is still needed to compete with Google and Microsoft Bing's billions of users.
- Those competitors are now incorporating AI models into search too. Perplexity aims to differentiate with flexible model selection, transparency, efficiency.
- The fresh $73.6 million will help Perplexity scale its unique search offering and take on the dominant players.