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Bezos-backed Perplexity reportedly raising $500M at $8B+ valuation

The AI-powered search engine specialist has already raised twice this year.

AI search engine specialist Perplexity is reportedly seeking a valuation of more than $8 billion as it mounts a challenge to Google’s dominance over search.

The Jeff Bezos-backed company seeks to raise $500 million, The Wall Street Journal first reported, in what would be the startup’s third funding round this year. The size and timing of the financing highlight the explosive valuation growth some AI startups are seeing.

Perplexity did not respond to PitchBook’s request for comment.

In April, Perplexity raised $62.7 million at a $1 billion valuation, which followed a $73.6 million Series B in January. Its investors include Nvidia, Elad Gil and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Perplexity uses AI to scour the web and provide answers to queries like a chatbot. It sells premium subscriptions to users and is launching an enterprise search product that allows customers to search their internal company files. A competitor in this space, Glean, raised $260 million in September. Perplexity has also said it will begin selling ads to broaden its revenue.

But the company has also been the subject of criticism and legal action from news publishers. Dow Jones and the New York Post filed a lawsuit against the company this week, alleging illegal copying of their material. Last week, The New York Times sent a cease-and-desist notice to Perplexity requesting it stop accessing their website.

The startup joins other AI specialists that have received large rounds in short order. Lightmatter, a startup creating AI chips that process information with light, more than quadrupled its valuation to $4.4 billion after raising a $400 million Series D last week, capping off an 18-month fundraising run of $709 million. Glean raised a $260 million Series E in September, just seven months after landing a $200 million Series D.

Perplexity’s reported funding comes on the heels of OpenAI’s $6.6 billion round, which valued the company at $157 billion, more than any VC-backed company at the time of its IPO.

Featured image by Aitor Diago/Getty Images

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    About Jacob Robbins
    Reporter Jacob Robbins covers artificial intelligence and the venture capital ecosystem for PitchBook. Based in Seattle, Jacob is originally from Massachusetts and holds dual degrees in political science and cinema studies from the American University. His work has previously appeared in Air Mail and Business Insider.
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