Aravind Srinivas

Aravind Srinivas is the CEO and co-founder of Perplexity AI, an AI-powered search platform that combines large language models with real-time information retrieval. Under his leadership, Perplexity has grown into one of the most funded AI companies, achieving a valuation of $21 billion with over $1.5 billion in total funding across multiple rounds through Series E.

Srinivas earned his undergraduate and master's degrees in electrical engineering from IIT Madras, followed by a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley under the mentorship of Pieter Abbeel, where he developed deep expertise in machine learning and AI systems. Before founding Perplexity, he worked as a research scientist at OpenAI, where he contributed to work on large language models and their applications. His experience at the frontier of AI research informed his vision for building practical AI tools that could improve how people access and understand information.

Perplexity AI launched to address limitations in traditional search engines by leveraging advanced language models to provide conversational, citation-backed answers rather than lists of links. The platform has gained significant user adoption and attention within the AI community for its approach to combining retrieval-augmented generation with consumer-facing search. Srinivas has been recognized as one of the younger founders building significant AI infrastructure and applications.

The company's rapid funding trajectory and market valuation reflect investor confidence in AI-native search alternatives. Perplexity's growth demonstrates sustained demand for new approaches to information retrieval in the era of large language models, positioning Srinivas among India's most prominent AI entrepreneurs working at the global level.