(Bloomberg) — Perplexity AI Inc., an artificial intelligence startup building a search product to compete with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, has closed a $500 million round of funding that triples the company’s valuation to $9 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners and completed earlier this month, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Perplexity declined to comment. Even by the lofty standards of other top AI startups, Perplexity has seen its valuation soar rapidly this year. In April, Perplexity was valued at $1 billion. That figure rose to $3 billion in June after the startup received an investment from SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund 2. The new $9 billion valuation includes the amount raised in the latest round.The funding reflects investor enthusiasm for rethinking online search to incorporate generative AI. Perplexity, founded in 2022, has distinguished itself from other AI chatbots by providing more real-time information. But the startup faces growing competition: ChatGPT-maker OpenAI this week began rolling out search features to all users of the chatbot. Microsoft Corp. and Google have also overhauled their search products to include more conversational AI features. Perplexity offers several services in addition to the paid and free versions of its search tool. The startup launched a product that allows organizations to search internal files and introduced new finance-related features, including looking up stock prices and company earnings data. In March, the company said it had more than 15 million active users.
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The company has also launched a series of revenue-sharing partnerships with major publishers, including Time and Fortune, after it faced accusations of plagiarism from some news outlets.In addition to SoftBank, Perplexity is backed by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and Nvidia Corp.
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