Perplexity ARR hit $80M, +60% from the $50M ARR in Oct
Rise of AI Note-Taking Solutions
Perplexity AI could raise s new round at $15B valuation, The Information said. If that is true, it would be Perplexity’s 4th round in the last 12 months. While last December, Perplexity closed a $500M round at a $9B valuation.
Its ARR reportedly hit $80M in Jan, a +60% from the $50M ARR in Oct. That is a huge milestone the AI search startup.
A huge opportunity to AI Search Engine
Over the past six months, Perplexity AI has achieved several significant milestones:
1. July 2024: Revenue-Sharing Program Initiated
In response to concerns from content creators and publishers regarding content usage, Perplexity AI launched a revenue-sharing pilot program. This initiative aims to share advertising revenue with original content creators, addressing issues related to content summarization and potential revenue diversion.
2. October 2024: Expansion of Financial Features
Perplexity AI introduced new finance-related functionalities, including real-time stock quotes, company earnings data, industry peer comparisons, and basic financial analysis tools. These features are designed to provide users with comprehensive financial information directly within the platform.
3. November 2024: Shopping Hub Launch
To enhance user experience in product searches, Perplexity AI unveiled a shopping hub. This feature, backed by partnerships with Amazon and Nvidia, presents users with product cards displaying relevant items in response to shopping-related queries.
4.December 2024: $500 Million Funding Round
Perplexity AI secured a $500 million funding round, elevating its valuation to $9 billion. This significant investment underscores the company’s rapid growth and its position as a formidable competitor in the AI search market.
5.January 2025: Launch of Perplexity Assistant for Android
The company expanded its services by introducing the Perplexity Assistant, an AI-powered tool designed to enhance functionality across multiple applications on Android devices. The assistant can perform tasks such as hailing rides, searching for songs, and maintaining context across actions for seamless task management.
6.February 2025: Launch a $50 Million Venture Fund
It is reported that perplexity is creating a $50 million venture fund focused on U.S.-based pre-seed and seed artificial intelligence (AI) startups.
These developments reflect Perplexity AI’s commitment to innovation and its strategic efforts to diversify and enhance its service offerings in the competitive AI landscape.
Genspark is reportedly raising $100M
On the other hand, Genspark, another AI search engine similar to Perplexity, is reportedly raised a $100M in its series A round boosting its valuation to $530m. Genspark now has 2M monthly active users.
In June 2024, Genspark raised $60m in an oversized seed funding round, which valued the startup at $260m.
These two cases may imply that the market is in a big demand to the AI search engine and it is a huge opportunity to startups.
Rise of AI Note-Taking Solutions
Lots of AI experienced huge growth last year, what they do is to replace the admin work, such as AI in law.
AI note-taking tools (especially for meetings) follow the same logic. These products replace the manual work of recording and summarizing meetings.
Last year, AI note-taking solutions saw explosive growth, with numerous products targeting different users and scenarios.
I did a summary of 7 AI note-taking tools raised more than $500M here: OpenAI Chair's AI startup Sierra at $20M ARR in one year.
The healthcare sector has been a particularly lucrative market for AI-driven notes. Abridge raised $250M at a valuation of $2.5 billion.
Freed, the AI-powered note-taking tool for clinical doctors, reached 15M ARR, grew from $5M ARR last year. They grew clinician customer base from 5k- to 15k+, grew their team from 10 to 50.
Following this trend, a new AI note-taking product recently secured nearly $25M in funding, targeting the financial sector, specifically financial advisors.
