SoftBank-backed Perplexity bags $500M funding at $9B valuation

AI-driven search engine Perplexity has raised $500 million in its fourth funding round, tripling its valuation to $9 billion.

According to a report by Bloomberg, IVP (Institutional Venture Partners)led the latest funding round, which concluded earlier this month. The report quoted a source who requested anonymity. 

Perplexity was valued at $1 billion in April, which rose to $3 billion in June after the Nvidia-backed company received an investment between $10 million and $20 million from SoftBank Group Vision Fund 2.

Founded in 2022, Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine and chatbot that uses advanced technologies such as natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning. It differentiates itself from other AI chatbots by providing real-time information. 

The startup faces competition from OpenAI, which has started rolling out search features to all users of ChatGPT. 

Meanwhile, Perplexity has acquired Carbon, a data connectivity startup, which connects external data sources to large language models.  

“We're excited to announce that we've acquired Carbon, a retrieval engine that connects external data sources to large language models. Soon, we'll integrate Carbon's data connectors into our tech stack, allowing users to connect apps like Notion and Google Docs directly to Perplexity,” read the company’s blog. 

The company stated that the acquisition aims to make AI more personalised and integrate it into user’s daily workflows. With the addition of Carbon, the startup's answer engine will be enhanced to access and process information from various sources, including internal databases, cloud storage, and document repositories.

This year, Perplexity also made headlines by introducing revenue-sharing partnerships with major publishers such as Time and Fortune, following allegations of plagiarism from certain news outlets.