Perplexity
AI-native answer engine and browser, building Google search alternative for the LLM era
SectorsAI Software
Market Metrics
Valuation (Sep 2025 tender)
$20B
10x in ~15 months from $2B (Jun 2024); per TechCrunch
Annualized Revenue (late 2025)
~$200M
per Sacra ($148M Jun 2025); 2026 target ~$656M
Monthly Queries Served
~780M
Per company (Aug 2025); ~10x YoY
Chrome Acquisition Bid
$34.5B
All-cash unsolicited offer (Aug 2025), rejected by Google
Updated at 2026-Q1
Funding History
Total raised: ~$1.5B+ · Latest valuation: $20B
| Round | Date | Amount | Valuation | Key Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Seed | Aug 2022 | $3.1M | - | NEADatabricks (Ali Ghodsi)Nat FriedmanElad Gil+1 more |
| Series A | Mar 2023 | $25.6M | $150M | NEA (lead)DatabricksSusan WojcickiJeff Dean |
| Series A2 | Sep 2023 | $73.6M | $520M | IVP (lead)NVIDIAJeff BezosTobi Lutke |
| Series B | Apr 2024 | $63M | $1B+ | Daniel Gross (lead)Stan DruckenmillerGarry TanAndrej Karpathy |
| Series B2 | Jun 2024 | $250M | $3B | IVPNEANVIDIA |
| SoftBank Strategic | Sep 2024 | $200M | - | SoftBank |
| Series C | Dec 2024 | $500M | $9B | IVP (lead)NEABessemerT. Rowe Price |
| Series D | May 2025 | $500M | $14B | Accel (lead)IVPNEANVIDIA |
| Tender / Primary | Sep 2025 | $200M | $20B | Existing investors (per TechCrunch) |
Updated at 2026-Q1
Product Specifications
| Product | Type | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Perplexity (free) | Answer engine on web + iOS + Android | GA |
| Perplexity Pro | $20/mo tier with frontier-model selector + Copilot | GA |
| Perplexity Max | $200/mo prosumer tier (Comet, image gen, advanced research) | GA (Jul 2025) |
| Comet Browser | Agentic AI browser (Mac, Windows, Linux) | GA (Aug 2025) |
| Perplexity Spaces | Collaborative research workspaces with shared context | GA |
| Perplexity Pages | Long-form research-to-article generator | GA |
| Sonar API | Search-grounded LLM API for developers | GA |
| Perplexity Shopping | Conversational commerce w/ partner merchants | GA (Nov 2024) |
Updated at 2026-Q1
Partnerships & Investors
SoftBankStrategic / Investor
$200M Sep 2024 round; Perplexity bundled with SoftBank Mobile in Japan.
NVIDIAStrategic / Investor
Multi-round investor; Perplexity uses NVIDIA inference + collaborates on retrieval-optimization research.
T-MobileDistribution
Default AI assistant in T-Life app (Nov 2025); also bundled with the T-Mobile AI Phone (TCL collab).
Bell CanadaDistribution
Default AI assistant for Bell customers (Nov 2025); Canadian-region data residency.
Deutsche TelekomDistribution
Default AI search on the T-Phone Next Gen (announced MWC 2025); EU deployment.
OpenAI / Anthropic / Mistral / xAIModel Suppliers
Frontier models from all major providers selectable in Pro/Max tiers.
Stripe + ShopifyCommerce
Powers Perplexity Shopping checkout integrations for merchants.
AWSCloud
Primary inference and retrieval cloud.
Updated at 2026-Q1
Key Milestones
Aug 2022
Company Founded
Aravind Srinivas, Andy Konwinski, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho launch Perplexity
Dec 2022
Perplexity v1 Public Launch
Conversational search engine combining LLM with web retrieval
Jan 2024
Perplexity Pro Launch
$20/mo tier with frontier model access (GPT-4, Claude, etc.) and Copilot mode
Jun 2024
Plagiarism Controversy
Wired / Forbes report on content scraping; Perplexity rolls out publisher revenue share program in response
Sep 2024
SoftBank Japan Partnership
$200M strategic round; Perplexity becomes the default chat product for SoftBank Mobile users in Japan
Dec 2024
Series C at $9B
Valuation 3x in 6 months; ARR reportedly crosses $50M
Mar 2025
Comet Browser Beta
Agentic AI browser launched in private beta for Perplexity Max subscribers
May 2025
Series D at $14B
$500M led by Accel; Comet expansion is the stated use of proceeds
Aug 2025
Chrome Acquisition Bid
$34.5B all-cash unsolicited bid to acquire Google Chrome; rejected by Google
Aug 2025
Comet Goes Free
Comet browser made free for all users; Pro tier retains advanced agent capabilities
Sep 2025
$20B Tender
$200M employee + investor tender at $20B per TechCrunch; valuation 10x in ~15 months
Nov 2025
T-Mobile / Bell / Deutsche Telekom Deals
Default AI assistant on T-Life (T-Mobile), Bell Canada AI services, Deutsche Telekom AI Phone
Updated at 2026-Q1