Perplexity AI Launches $50 Million Venture Fund to Boost AI Startup Innovation

Perplexity AI Unveils $50 Million Fund to Propel AI Startup Innovation

Perplexity AI launches a $50 million venture fund to support AI startups and innovation in the technology sector. Perplexity AI has launched a $50 million venture fund to fuel innovation and growth in the AI industry. Targeting seed and pre-seed investments, the fund aims to support the development of AI-powered technologies, including advanced and machine learning solutions. Led by CEO Aravind Srinivas, this strategic move aligns with Perplexity's vision of pioneering breakthroughs in artificial intelligence while solidifying its position in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.

Perplexity AI launching $50 million venture fund to back early-stage startups

Perplexity AI logo is seen in this illustration taken January 4, 2024. Perplexity AI, the developer of a popular artificial intelligence search engine, is close to raising a $50 million venture fund focused on early-stage AI startups, CNBC has learned. The company will be an anchor investor in the fund, but most of the capital is coming from outside limited partners, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information is confidential. The two general partners of the fund are also coming from elsewhere. They are Kelly Graziadei and Joanna Lee Shevelenko, who have been running early-stage fund f7 Ventures, the person said. Perplexity has been in the middle of the generative AI boom that began in late 2022 with the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT. CNBC reported in November that the company was in the final stages of raising $500 million in funding at a $9 billion valuation. Perplexity is viewed as a potential competitor to Google as more consumers turn to AI to search for information online. Last month, Perplexity also made a bid to merge with TikTok U.S. as the social media platform faces a potential U.S. shutdown. The company sees a potential investing advantage when it comes to startups because roughly 80,000 developers are plugged into its network, so Perplexity gets visibility into who is using its application programming interface (API) and who is most active in their consumption, the person said. Perplexity's founders and investors are putting money into the fund, and some of the company's commitment is in the form of stock, the source said.

Report: Perplexity Creating $50 Million Venture Fund for AI Startups | PYMNTS.com

Perplexity AI is reportedly creating a $50 million venture fund focused on U.S.-based pre-seed and seed artificial intelligence (AI) startups. The company, which is an AI startup itself, will be an anchor investor in the fund, but outside limited partners will provide most of the capital, CNBC reported Tuesday (Feb. 25), citing unnamed sources. Reached by PYMNTS, Perplexity declined to comment on the report. It was reported in December that the company closed a $500 million funding round earlier that month, with its backers including SoftBank, Nvidia and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The round tripled Perplexity's valuation to $9 billion. On Monday (Feb. 24), Perplexity announced that it plans to launch its own web browser, dubbed Comet, and invited people to sign up on a waitlist. The company said in October that its search engine served over 100 million queries per week. In November, Perplexity introduced an AI-powered shopping assistant called Buy With Pro that helps shoppers both research and purchase products. Forty-two percent of U.S. venture capital was invested into AI companies in 2024, up from 36% in 2023 and 22% in 2022, HSBC Innovation Banking reported in December. "Venture capital has always gravitated toward transformative industries, but the level of consolidation we're seeing within one category is unprecedented," HSBC U.S. Innovation Banking Head Dave Sabow said at the time in a press release. "The radical change this investment will fuel places us in the dawn of 'The Agentic Age,' an era where autonomous artificial intelligence capabilities fundamentally redefine how we communicate, work and interface with digital and physical worlds," Sabow said. Three startups in robotics and cloud AI collectively raised $2.3 billion recently, PYMNTS reported Tuesday. Figure, which makes humanoid robots for home and business, reportedly is in talks to raise $1.5 billion in a Series C funding round; Lambda, a cloud AI startup that is building a hyperscaler cloud for AI developers and end users, raised $480 million; and Together.ai, which is also building an AI cloud for AI applications using open-source models and training custom models, raised $305 million in a Series B funding round.