Perplexity seeks to raise funds with a valuation of 8 billion dollars.
The artificial intelligence search engine Perplexity is in talks to raise funds, aiming to secure approximately $500 million, with a valuation of $8 billion.
Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, is in talks for a new funding round, hoping to raise approximately $500 million, which would elevate its valuation to $8 billion. This amount would represent more than double its current valuation of $3 billion, which was established after receiving an investment from SoftBank during the summer.
Currently, Perplexity handles around 15 million daily queries, achieving an annualized revenue of approximately $50 million. Its platform allows users to search the web through a chatbot-style interface. However, the company has faced criticism from some news publishers who accuse it of unauthorized web scraping and plagiarism. In fact, The New York Times has sent a cease and desist letter to Perplexity. Despite these accusations, its CEO, Aravind Srinivas, has expressed a desire to collaborate with publishers and has stated that he does not seek to be an antagonist.
These funding discussions come at a time when OpenAI has announced a $6.6 billion funding round at a valuation of $157 billion. At the same time, as products like ChatGPT have blurred the lines between chatbots and search engines, OpenAI is also intensifying its focus on the search sector with the development of SearchGPT. A spokesperson for Perplexity declined to comment on the report.
