SAN FRANCISCO - Sep 11, 2025 (UTC) - Perplexity, the AI-powered search startup that competes with Google by providing conversational answers to user queries, has secured $200 million in new capital at a $20 billion valuation, as per the Information reported by Techcrunch. The fresh funding comes just two months after the company raised $100 million at an $18 billion valuation, according to a July report in Bloomberg.
Since its founding three years ago, the rapidly growing AI company has raised $1.5 billion in total funding, according to PitchBook data. It’s unclear who led Perplexity’s latest capital injection. Bloomberg reported that the July financing was an extension of a previous $500 million round completed earlier this year at a $14 billion valuation and led by Accel.
According to a source familiar with the company, Perplexity’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) is approaching $200 million. Last month, Perplexity’s head of communication told Business Insider that the company’s ARR was more than $150 million.
Run by Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity in August made a $34.5 billion unsolicited all-cash offer for Alphabet’s Chrome browser, a bid far above its own valuation. The offer came after the Justice Department, alleging that Google was acting anticompetitively, proposed that the company sell its web browser. However, earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that Google will not have to break up its search business, effectively allowing the search giant to keep Chrome.
The Nvidia-backed startup has an AI browser, Comet, that can perform certain tasks on a user’s behalf. Buying Chrome would have allowed it to tap the browser’s more than three billion users, giving it the heft to better compete with bigger rivals such as OpenAI, which is also working on its own AI browser.
Reuters could not immediately verify this report and Perplexity did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
About Perplexity
Perplexity is an AI-powered search startup founded three years ago that competes with Google by providing conversational answers to user queries. The San Francisco-based company is backed by Nvidia and has developed an AI browser called Comet that can perform tasks on users’ behalf. The company positions itself as a challenger to Google’s search dominance and has achieved rapid growth with annual recurring revenue approaching $200 million.
