Perplexity Looks To Raise $250M-Plus At Valuation Of $2.5B Or More

The same day Perplexity AI announced a $62.7 million round, it was reported the AI startup is looking to raise another $250 million-plus at a valuation between $2.5 billion and $3 billion.

The newly announced round was first reported last month and was led by Daniel Gross. It also included investors such as Nvidia, IVP, NEA, Jeff Bezos and Garry Tan among others. The new round reportedly values the company at more than $1 billion.

However, per a report in TechCrunch, the AI search engine startup is far from done, engaging investors in talks of a mega-round that would increase that valuation by at least 150%. IVP and NEA were said to be looking at participating in the new round.

It was just in January the company raised a $73.6 million Series B led by IVP that valued it at $520 million.

The rapid succession of rounds is just another indication of investors’ insatiable appetite for AI. Perplexity is particularly interesting since it shows investors and strategics are willing to back a young startup looking to take on the invincible search titan Google.

More money

Perplexity was not the only startup to reportedly be raising big bucks Tuesday.

Skild, a startup emerging from Carnegie Mellon University that is developing software for robots, is reportedly raising nearly $300 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue and others at a $1.5 billion valuation, per The Information.

That round is just the latest in a flurry of deals involving young robotic startups.

Earlier this month, Santa Clara, California-based Collaborative Robotics locked up $100 million in a Series B led by General Catalyst. In February, Sunnyvale, California-based Figure raised a huge $675 million round at a pre-money valuation of roughly $2 billion. Big-name investors in that round included Jeff Bezos’ Explore Investments and Nvidia among others.