Perplexity has reportedly raised $200 million in fresh funding, pushing its valuation to $20 billion barely two months after it secured $100 million at an $18 billion valuation.
The company, launched in 2022, has now pulled in a total of $1.5 billion in funding. Details of who backed this latest round remain undisclosed. Previous rounds have seen investors like Accel step in, with July’s $100 million injection reported as part of an extension of an earlier $500 million round.
Growth has been rapid. According to sources, Perplexity’s annual recurring revenue is now approaching $200 million, up from $150 million just last month. That pace shows growing enterprise adoption and also the swelling user base, 30 million active users generating about 780 million queries each month.
The company’s vision extends well beyond being “another search engine.” Perplexity has repeatedly cast itself as a direct challenger to Google, offering conversational, citation-backed answers rather than the long list of links users typically see.
In August, it went as far as making a $34.5 billion bid to acquire Google’s Chrome browser. The move followed U.S. Justice Department pressure on Google to divest Chrome over antitrust concerns. A federal judge later ruled Google would not be forced to sell, effectively ending the chance of that deal.
Beyond high-profile bids, Perplexity is working to expand its ecosystem. Its new Chromium-based browser, Comet, is currently available to Perplexity Max subscribers. The browser integrates search with task automation and multitasking tools, noting the company’s intention to play not only in search but also in productivity and workflow automation.
On the competition side, Google is continually refining its Search Generative Experience, OpenAI is reportedly preparing its own browser, and Anthropic is pushing its Claude-powered tools. However, Perplexity’s pitch, real-time answers with citations, has carved a unique position that is drawing attention from both publishers and enterprises.
The company has not issued a statement on the latest funding, but it is moving quickly, driven by capital, adoption, and a goal to unsettle one of the most entrenched tech monopolies of the modern era.
