Who's who · AI apps & SaaS
Perplexity
AI answer engine that searches the web and cites its sources, plus the Comet browser and agents
At a glance
- Founded
- 2022
- Based in
- San Francisco, United States
- People
- Aravind Srinivas, Co-founder and chief executive; Denis Yarats, Co-founder; Johnny Ho, Co-founder
- Known for
- Perplexity, Comet, Perplexity Computer
- Funding
- Private; about $1.7 billion raised; reportedly valued at $20 billion (September 2025)
- Questions answered
- About 1.5 billion a month (company figure, 2026)
- Website
- https://www.perplexity.ai
Perplexity is a San Francisco company that runs an AI answer engine. It searches the web, writes an answer and cites the pages it used. It was founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, its chief executive, with Denis Yarats and Johnny Ho. The service has free and paid tiers, up to the $200-a-month Perplexity Max plan.
The company has moved beyond search into browsing and agents. Comet, its AI web browser, launched in July 2025. Perplexity Computer, introduced in February 2026, is a cloud-based agent that runs long, multi-step tasks using many AI models and its own sub-agents. In June 2026 it added Personal Computer, which it calls an orchestrator: it decides whether each task runs on the user's device or in the cloud and which model handles it. Its products draw on models from several companies, including Anthropic.
Perplexity says it answers about 1.5 billion questions a month and that 92% of Fortune 500 companies use it. It has raised about $1.7 billion and was last reported to be valued at $20 billion.
Sources
- CNBC, 31. Perplexity (CNBC Disruptor 50), 2026-05-19
- CNBC, Perplexity CEO tells CNBC one metric will determine who wins the AI race, 2026-06-03
- TechCrunch, Perplexity's new Computer is another bet that users need many AI models, 2026-02-27
Facts last checked 2026-10-02