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Perplexity, a generative AI startup developing a search engine to rival Google, has secured nearly $63 million in Series B funding. This investment has propelled the 55-person startup to double its valuation in three months, now exceeding $1 billion, with total fundraising reaching $165 million.
The round was led by investor Daniel Gross with participation from Y Combinator chief executive officer Garry Tan, Figma Inc. CEO Dylan Field and billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller. Previous backers, including Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, also joined the round.
“With the new funds, we are prioritizing speed, accuracy and reliability as we scale and bring on more users,” its chief business officer, Dmitry Shevelenko, told ADWEEK. The company reported $20 million in annual recurring revenue.
Perplexity, offering both free and paid versions of its service, handled 52 million queries in 2023 and processed 75 million queries year-to-date, company CEO Aravind Srinivas told CNBC. Like other AI firms, the startup is prioritizing revenue growth by targeting business customers with its AI services, while building its ads business, ADWEEK previously reported.
Perplexity is launching a new enterprise edition of its chatbot, Enterprise Pro, available at a rate of $40 per month per seat or $400 per year. This premium version includes advanced features such as voice-to-text prompts, unlimited file uploads and enhanced data privacy measures. Media agency Universal McCann, McCann Worldgroup, Snowflake, Zoom, Paytm, HP and Cleveland Cavaliers, among others, are early users of Enterprise Pro.
“With Perplexity, we are finding it especially useful in integrating AI across various workstreams, our day-to-day work, including client AI trainings and workshops focused on innovative solutions,” said Elav Horwitz, evp of global head of applied innovation at McCann Worldgroup.
With Perplexity Pro, McCann’s wellness and beauty brand can uncover new trends by conducting trend analysis based on age and consumer preferences specific to global markets such as Asia, to inform new product launches, said Horwitz. The agency is also able to process 10,000 documents, synthesizing diverse data points and saving significant time.
“What sets Perplexity apart is not just its efficiency but its role as a source of inspiration, helping us uncover new insights and forge connections that might not be immediately apparent,” she added.
Elsewhere, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ data team is using Perplexity to analyze ticket sales trends and identify partnership prospects. HP’s salesforce is utilizing the startup’s search chatbot to conduct research, enhance pitch development and streamline the sales process. To that, the marketing and product teams at software company Amplitude rely on Perplexity to generate market landscape insights.
Perplexity is also expanding its user base across global markets. The startup has inked partnerships with leading telecommunication giants, Japan’s SoftBank Corp and Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, to market its capabilities to a combined user base exceeding 335 million across mobile and broadband services.
