# Perplexity AI's $250 Million Funding Round (2024)

Perplexity AI raised $250 million in 2024 at a $3 billion valuation, led by SoftBank, marking a significant milestone for the AI search startup founded in 2022.

Perplexity AI, Inc., an American privately held software company known for its AI-powered web search engine, completed a $250 million funding round in 2024 at a company valuation of $3 billion. The round was led by SoftBank, a major Japanese technology investment firm, and represented a substantial increase from the company's earlier valuation of over $1 billion in April 2024. This funding event occurred during a period of rapid growth and expansion for the company, which had been founded just two years prior.

The 2024 funding round positioned Perplexity AI among the most heavily capitalized startups in the [generative-ai](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/generative-ai) sector. The company's search engine, which synthesizes responses from current internet content and cites sources, had attracted significant user adoption since its launch. The investment from SoftBank signaled confidence in Perplexity's ability to compete with established search providers and other AI companies.

## Background and Founding

Perplexity AI was founded on August 22, 2022, by [aravind-srinivas](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/aravind-srinivas), Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski, engineers with backgrounds in back-end systems, [artificial-intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence), and [machine-learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/machine-learning). Aravind Srinivas, who became the company's CEO, previously held research positions at [openai](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/openai) and [google-deepmind](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/google-deepmind). The company launched its main search engine on December 7, 2022, and subsequently released a Google Chrome extension and mobile apps for iOS and Android.

By February 2023, Perplexity reported two million unique visitors to its platform. The company's early growth attracted attention from prominent investors, including [jeff-bezos](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/jeff-bezos), Nat Friedman, and Tobias Lütke. Prior to the 2024 round, Perplexity had raised $165 million in funding, which valued the company at over $1 billion.

## The 2024 Funding Round

The $250 million funding round led by softbank was announced in 2024, bringing the company's valuation to $3 billion. This represented a tripling of the company's valuation from earlier in the year. The round included participation from existing investors such as [nvidia](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/nvidia) and [databricks](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/databricks), as well as new institutional backers. SoftBank's involvement was particularly notable given the firm's history of large investments in technology companies.

The funding was intended to support Perplexity's expansion of its search infrastructure, development of new features, and competition with larger AI companies. The company used the capital to enhance its large language model integrations and improve its answer engine capabilities.

## Product Development and Expansion

Following the 2024 funding round, Perplexity accelerated its product development efforts. In October 2024, the company launched finance-focused features, including software that tracks stock prices, company earnings data, and basic financial analysis tools. The platform sourced its financial data from Financial Modelling Prep.

In November 2024, Perplexity launched its Shopping Hub, an online shopping platform that generates product recommendations and enables users to purchase products directly through the company's interface. The shopping hub was backed by [amazon](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/amazon) and Nvidia, reflecting the company's growing partnerships with major technology firms.

In January 2025, Perplexity launched the Perplexity Assistant, an AI tool designed to improve the search engine's functionality. The assistant could perform tasks such as using a rideshare app or searching for a song, and could maintain context across actions. It could also use a phone's camera to provide answers about the user's surroundings or on-screen content.

## Search API and Enterprise Offerings

Perplexity's Search API provided AI developers with programmatic access to the company's search infrastructure. The company also developed Internal Knowledge Search, which enabled Pro and Enterprise Pro users to browse web content and internal documents simultaneously. Users could upload and search through files in Excel, Word, PDF, and other common file formats, with Enterprise Pro users able to index up to 500 files.

The company's Pro subscription tier offered stronger security, data protection, and additional tools. It allowed users to select between backend models such as GPT-5.4, Claude 4.6, and Gemini 3.1 Pro. Perplexity also developed its own models, including Sonar (based on [llama-3](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/llama-3)) and R1 1776 (based on [deepseek](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/deepseek)).

## Legal and Regulatory Challenges

Perplexity AI faced legal scrutiny over allegations of copyright infringement, unauthorized use of content, and trademark issues from several major media organizations, including the BBC, Dow Jones, and The New York Times. According to separate analyses by Wired and, later, Cloudflare, Perplexity used undisclosed web crawlers with spoofed user-agent strings to scrape content from websites that prohibited or explicitly blocked web scraping.

In June 2024, Forbes publicly criticized Perplexity for using its content without proper authorization. These controversies highlighted the tensions between AI search companies and traditional media publishers over content usage and attribution.

## Subsequent Growth and Valuation

As of September 2025, Perplexity AI was valued at $20 billion. By June 2025, the company had closed a $500 million funding round, elevating its valuation to $14 billion. As of early 2026, Perplexity reached a valuation of $21.21 billion following its Series E-6 funding round.

In January 2026, the company signed a three-year, $750 million agreement with [microsoft](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/microsoft) to use its [azure](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/azure) cloud and Foundry service, giving Perplexity access to models from OpenAI, [anthropic](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/anthropic), and xAI. [amazon-web-services](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/amazon-web-services) remained its main cloud provider.

In February 2026, Perplexity transitioned to a subscription-first model by discontinuing its AI-integrated advertising strategy. Leadership stated this move was intended to preserve user trust in the answer engine, prioritizing objective results over ad revenue.

## Leadership and Strategic Moves

Aravind Srinivas continued to serve as CEO and co-founder of Perplexity AI. In a March 2026 All-In episode, Srinivas said that incoming AI-related layoffs were a glorious future to look forward to, as it freed people from jobs they did not like and gave them opportunities to pursue entrepreneurship.

In July 2024, Perplexity announced the launch of a new publishers' program to share advertising revenue with partners. On January 18, 2025, the day before the impending U.S. ban on the social media app TikTok, Perplexity submitted a proposal for a merger with TikTok US. On August 12, 2025, Perplexity made a bid to purchase Chrome from [google](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/google) for $34.5 billion, stating that the sale could remedy antitrust litigation against Google. In December 2025, Cristiano Ronaldo took an undisclosed stake in Perplexity AI and entered a global brand partnership with the company.

The 2024 funding round led by SoftBank proved to be a pivotal moment in Perplexity's trajectory, providing the capital and credibility needed to expand its product offerings and compete in the rapidly evolving AI search market.

## External links

- [Wikipedia: Perplexity AI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perplexity_AI)

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Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/perplexity-2024-250m-round
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Last updated: 2026-10-23T02:23:14.201666+00:00