Perplexity Secures $73.6 Million in Series B Funding Round
The company stands firm on principles of accuracy and transparency, aiming to replace conventional search methods with a more efficient and credible way of consuming information.
Perplexity, an AI-powered search engines, has announced a remarkable achievement in its Series B funding, securing $73.6 million. The significant investment marks a pivotal moment for Perplexity as it continues to advance its mission of information access through cutting-edge AI technology.
The company, which launched the world's first fully functional conversational answer engine a year ago, has witnessed meteoric growth, boasting 10 million monthly active users and having catered to over half a billion queries in 2023. Emphasizing its commitment to global expansion, Perplexity revealed that more than a million users have installed its mobile applications across both iOS and Android platforms.
To bolster its rapid consumer adoption and ambitious expansion plans, Perplexity received substantial backing from notable venture capital firms and tech luminaries in this Series B round. The investment was led by IVP, with continued support from previous investors such as NEA, Elad Gil, Nat Friedman, and Databricks. Notably, the round also saw the participation of new investors including NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos (through Bezos Expeditions Fund), Tobi Lutke, Bessemer Venture Partners, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Guillermo Rauch, Austen Allred, Factorial Funds, and Kindred Ventures, among others.
Cack Wilhelm, General Partner at IVP, expressed confidence in Perplexity's vision, stating, "The team possesses the unique ability to uphold a grand, long-term vision while shipping product relentlessly, requirements to tackle a problem as important and fundamental as search."
Acknowledging the transformative potential of AI in information access, Jonathan Cohen, VP of Applied Research at NVIDIA, remarked on Perplexity's pioneering role in consumer AI products and praised the company's achievement of reaching 10 million MAUs.
Perplexity's AI-driven search tools promise users instant and trustworthy answers, eliminating the need to scour multiple links or navigate through search engine clutter. Moreover, Perplexity's recent launch of Copilot, an AI research assistant, has garnered significant attention for revolutionizing information discovery. Copilot introduces generative user interfaces and streamlines the research process, gaining traction among academia, students, and knowledge workers.
The company's CEO highlighted a behavioral shift in how people access information online and underscored Perplexity's role in enhancing curiosity and intelligence while providing streamlined access to reliable information.
With the unwavering support of investors, technologists, and its vast user base, Perplexity remains committed to its mission of shaping a smarter planet by developing the most agile and accurate platform for answering any query.
