AI startup Perplexity to triple valuation in new funding round – WSJ

According to WSJ interlocutors, the round will be led by the venture fund Institutional Venture Partners and the agreement is in the final stage. The new investment will make Perplexity, which created an artificial intelligence search engine, one of the most valuable young startups in its field, the WSJ noted.

Previously, in October, the publication’s sources reported that over the past year the company had attracted three rounds of financing: in January 2024, its valuation was $520 million and by summer it had increased to $3 billion. of the new round, the startup’s valuation could triple. In October, WSJ sources valued the company at $8 billion based on the results of the upcoming deal.

According to WSJ interlocutors, the Perplexity search engine receives approximately 15 million requests a day with an annual revenue of about $50 million.

Perplexity was founded in 2022 by entrepreneur Andy Konwinski. The startup has developed an AI search system that searches the Internet for information and can respond to user queries, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The company has been repeatedly criticized by several publishers who accused it of using their materials without permission for search results. For example, in October, The New York Times demanded that Perplexity stop using its content.

Despite the scandal, in November the startup’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, offered the newspaper technical infrastructure support ahead of the US presidential election, when the publication’s employees decided to go on strike.

Users of the social network X condemned Srinivas’s intention to help the NYT; These people, writes TechCrunch, are called strikebreakers, people who work in place of the strikers to break the strike, which is considered undignified in matters of work and justice.