Jeff Bezos’ investment in an AI search-engine startup aiming to take on Google is expected to double after just a few months. Perplexity AI, which calls itself “an alternative to traditional search engines,” is finalizing a new funding round that would see its valuation double to about $1 billion, just two months after its latest funding deal, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Perplexity AI’s “advanced answer engine” includes a conversational interface, contextual awareness from its conversation with the user, and personalization to learn a user’s interests and preferences, the company’s website says. The engine then uses predictive text capabilities to generate responses that are provided with sources.
The startup, which was founded in 2022, has reportedly surpassed $10 million in annual revenue, and visits to its app on mobile and desktop grew 8.6% last month to around 50 million users, according to Similarweb. Perplexity AI co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas wrote in a blog post in January that the search engine had grown to 10 million monthly active users and served over half a billion queries in 2023, a year after launching it publicly.
Perplexity AI did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning.
Srinivas also announced that the startup had raised $73.6 million in a Series B funding round that included investments from Bezos through his Bezos Expeditions Fund and major chipmaker Nvidia. Jonathan Cohen, vice president of Applied Research at Nvidia, said at the time that the startup’s “world-class team is building a trusted AI-powered search platform that will help push this transformation forward.” Perplexity AI reached a $520 million valuation after that funding round.
Perplexity AI, which has received more backing in recent years than any other search startup, is not afraid to compete with Google, which has been dominant in the space for the last 20 years.
“Google is going to be viewed as something that’s legacy and old, and Perplexity will be viewed as something that’s the next generation and future,” Srinivas told Reuters in January.
