Ventura of AI of perplexity of $ 50 million, support of startups in the initial stage

Perpleplexity AI, the developer of a popular artificial intelligence search engine is close to collecting a risk fund of $ 50 million focused on new companies in the initial stage, as CNBC has learned.

The company will be an inverter in the background, but most of the capital comes from external limited partners, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be appointed because the information is confidential.

The two general fund members also come from other places. They are Kelly Graziadei and Joanna Lee Shevelenko, who have been running Fund de F7 Ventures, said the person. According to a presentation With the SEC from October, the F7 perplexity fund that had presented to raise $ 50 million. Graziadei and Shevelenko are appointed as the two general partners.

The perplexity has been in the middle of the generative boom of AI that began at the end of 2022 with the launch of Operai Chatgpt. CNBC reported in November that the company was in the final stages of raising $ 500 million in Financing to an assessment of $ 9 billion. Perplexity is considered a potential competitor for Google As more consumers resort to AI to search online information.

Last month, perplexity also made a Bet to merge with Tiktok The United States, such as the Social Network Platform, faces a possible closure of the US.

The company sees a possible investment advantage when it comes to new companies because approximately 80,000 developers are connected to their network, so perplexity obtains visibility on who is using its application programming interface (API) and who is more active in His consumption, said the person.

Perplexity’s founders and investors are putting money in the background, and part of the company’s commitment is in the form of shares, said the source.

– Samantha subin of CNBC contributed to this report.

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