NeuralStackPerplexity announced the 650 million dollar Series D on July 22 2026 with participation from Nvidia and existing investors. The round values the company at 9 billion post-money and closes its Series C extension from April. Revenue reached 180 million dollars annualized with 42 million monthly active users as of July 1.
The company plans to allocate 300 million dollars to European data centers and 150 million to enterprise product development. New features include real-time financial data feeds and internal knowledge base connectors launching August 15. Perplexity also hired 180 engineers from Google and Meta in the past quarter.
Perplexity launched its first paid Pro tier in January 2025 and reached profitability in Q4 2025. The startup competes directly with Google Search and Microsoft Bing AI answers. European data residency requirements drove the decision to build local infrastructure.
Why this matters
High valuations for AI search companies signal continued investor appetite despite broader market cooling. Enterprise features address compliance needs for regulated industries seeking alternatives to general web search. The funding round may trigger similar raises from other AI consumer startups before September.
Perplexity aims to reach 300 million dollars annualized revenue by March 2027 through enterprise contracts. The European data centers will support GDPR-compliant indexing of local content. Competitors including You.com and Elicit are expected to announce funding rounds within 60 days.