AI search engine startup Perplexity AI is set to launch a $50m venture fund aimed at supporting pre-seed and seed AI startups in the US.
The company will act as an anchor investor, with most of the funding sourced from external limited partners, CNBC reported citing a source.
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The fund will be managed by general partners Kelly Graziadei and Joanna Lee Shevelenko, who have been leading early-stage fund f7 Ventures.
A US Securities and Exchange Commission filing from October indicates that Perplexity F7 Fund I is raising $50m, with Graziadei and Shevelenko named as the general partners.
The company believes it has an investment edge in startups due to its network of approximately 80,000 developers, providing insight into API usage and activity levels.
Perplexity’s founders and investors are contributing to the fund, with some of the company’s commitment in the form of stock, the source added.
Perplexity AI has been central to the generative AI surge that began with OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022.
In November 2024, the company raised a $500m funding round, valuing it at $9bn.
Perplexity AI also made a bid to merge with TikTok US submitting a revised proposal in January 2025.
According to a source, the search engine startup’s plan involves creating a new entity that would combine Perplexity and TikTok US, with the US government potentially owning up to 50% following an IPO.
Initially, the AI startup presented a proposal to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance on 18 January 2025, one day before the TikTok ban law took effect on national security grounds.
The company also announced that its research tool, Deep Research, is available through its Sonar API.
