Perplexity, an AI Search Engine, in Fundraising Talks to Double Valuation
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, AI search engine Perplexity is currently in fundraising talks with hopes of raising approximately $500 million at an $8 billion valuation. This potential deal would more than double Perplexity’s valuation from its previous $3 billion valuation when it received funding from SoftBank earlier this year.
The Wall Street Journal also notes that Perplexity currently handles around 15 million queries per day and generates approximately $50 million in annual revenue.
Perplexity sets itself apart by utilizing AI technology to provide users with a chatbot-style interface for web searches. Despite facing criticism from some news publishers for alleged unauthorized web scraping and plagiarism, CEO Aravind Srinivas has expressed a desire to collaborate with publishers and avoid any antagonistic relationships.
These fundraising discussions come on the heels of OpenAI’s recent announcement of securing a $6.6 billion funding round at a valuation of $157 billion. While OpenAI’s ChatGPT has blurred the lines between chatbots and search engines, the company is now venturing more directly into the search engine space with SearchGPT.
As of now, Perplexity has not provided a response to a request for comment from JS.
