Perplexity Is Reportedly In Talks To Raise Up To $1 Billion At An $18 Billion Valuation

AI-powered search startup Perplexity is said to be in early talks to raise up to $1 billion in a new funding round valuing the startup at $18 billion. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday, as the Nvidia-backed startup looks to grow and capture soaring demand for its search tools.Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported on Thursday that Perplexity’s annual recurring revenue has now reached $100 million. Perplexity’s valuation has soared in recent years. This new round would double Perplexity’s current valuation — $9 billion — as of December. In April 2024, Perplexity was valued at $1 billion.Rumors of a new round come as competition in the AI-powered search space heats up.On Thursday, Anthropic added web search to its consumer AI chatbot, Claude. Earlier in March, Google launched an early version of a chat-based AI search engine, called AI Mode, for a limited group of testers.Perhaps because its core market is becoming increasingly crowded, Perplexity is trying to expand into new areas. The startup recently teased the launch of an “agentic” browser called Comet, and it has ramped up its enterprise offerings, recently launching an AI search engine to help businesses retrieve information from internal documents.More on Perplexity’s reported fundraising efforts on TechCrunchAgentic AI for the Enterprise | Inbound and Outbound AI Voice AgentsI’ve partnered with DBC Technologies and I am now consulting with companies who are interested in automating inbound and outbound messaging with AI Voice Agents.Web AI Chatbots, Inbound / Outbound AI Voice Agents, AI Marketing & ConsultingIf you are interested in AI Voice Agents for your business or organization message me.Thats all for today, but AI is moving fast - subscribe and follow for more Neural News. Get full access to Neural News Network at remunerationlabs.substack.com/subscribe