Report: Perplexity in Talks to Raise Up to $1 Billion | PYMNTS.com
Mar 20, 2025 - pymnts.com
Perplexity AI is reportedly in early discussions to raise between $500 million and $1 billion in a funding round that could value the company at $18 billion, according to Bloomberg. The company, which was founded in 2022, has seen its valuation triple twice in 2024, from $1 billion to $3 billion and then to $9 billion. Perplexity is developing an AI search engine to compete with Google, offering both paid and free versions, and a product for organizations to search internal files. As of late October, its AI search engine was handling over 100 million queries per week, with ambitions to reach 100 million queries daily.
In early March, Perplexity began open-sourcing a version of DeepSeek’s reasoning R1 model, retrained to provide factual answers on topics censored in China. Additionally, T-Mobile's parent company, Deutsche Telekom, announced plans to use Perplexity's technology to create an "AI Phone" with a virtual assistant as the primary interface. In February, Perplexity revealed plans to launch its own web browser, "Comet," aiming to reinvent the browsing experience.
Key takeaways:
Perplexity AI is in early talks to raise $500 million to $1 billion, potentially valuing the company at $18 billion.
The company has tripled its valuation twice in 2024, reaching $9 billion, and is developing an AI search engine to compete with Google.
Perplexity is collaborating with Deutsche Telekom to develop an "AI Phone" with a virtual assistant similar to Siri or Gemini.
Perplexity plans to launch its own web browser called "Comet" and has begun open sourcing a version of DeepSeek's reasoning model.
