Perplexity AI

Perplexity AI is an AI-powered answer engine founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski. The company is building a replacement for traditional search engines that provides direct answers with cited sources rather than links. Perplexity uses a combination of large language models and real-time web search to answer questions accurately and completely. The product reached 10 million daily active users in 2024 and processes over 100 million queries per month. Perplexity has raised $520 million in funding at a $9 billion valuation from investors including IVP, NEA, and Jeff Bezos. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with approximately 100 employees. Perplexity Pro offers advanced features including image generation, file analysis, and access to more powerful AI models. The company competes directly with Google Search and is considered the most serious challenger to Google in the search market.