Perplexity is an AI search engine founded in 2022 by Denis Yarats, Andy Konwinski, Aravind Srinivas, and Johnny Ho in San Francisco. The company has raised $1.72B in total funding across 11 rounds at a $22.6B valuation as of January 2026. With nearly 1,500 employees and $200M ARR, Perplexity combines real-time web search with AI to deliver cited, conversational answers.