Perplexity Hits $9B Valuation with New Funding
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Perplexity, the search startup powered by artificial intelligence, is raising a new round of investment that would value the company at $9 billion, reports Reuters. The funding round, led by venture capital firm Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), is set to bring in $500 million, signaling continued investor enthusiasm for AI companies.
Perplexity, based in California, previously raised $73.6 million in Series B funding in January, led by IVP, valuing the company at $520 million. This latest round represents a significant increase in valuation, reflecting the rapid growth and investor interest in the AI space.
The meteoric rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT has fueled investor appetite for AI startups, as businesses scramble to adopt the technology. Building large language models (LLMs) requires substantial investments, and OpenAI recently closed a $6.6 billion funding round, potentially valuing the company at $157 billion.
Perplexity's success comes despite concerns from publishers over the potential for AI-powered search tools to infringe on copyrighted content. News Corp, owner of Dow Jones and the New York Post, sued Perplexity in October, alleging "massive amount of illegal copying" of its copyrighted work. The New York Times also sent a cease and desist notice last month, demanding that the startup stop using its content for generative AI purposes.
Perplexity, which provides information through internet searches, is backed by prominent investors including Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and chip designer Nvidia. The company is among the leading firms seeking to disrupt the search engine market, currently dominated by Alphabet's Google.