By Michelle Castillo
Publication Date: 2026-05-19 09:45:00
Founders: Aravind Srinivas (CEO), Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho
Launched: 2022
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding: $1.7 billion
Valuation: N/A
Key Technologies: Artificial intelligence, generative AI
Industry: Enterprise technology
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 1 (No. 27 in 2025)
Igor Gnedo, Antonina Lepore & Adrianne Paerels
Perplexity, a direct challenger to Google’s search and browsing ecosystem, has been targeting even more Big Tech business over the past year.
The company, which has made inroads as an AI-powered search engine that gives simple answers to people’s prompts, expanded its reach in July 2025 by launching its first AI-native browser Comet. For $200 a month, the browser integrated Perplexity’s search engine — which answers 1.5 billion questions worldwide monthly — and allowed users to summarize pages, conduct research, draft emails and complete tasks with the help of its AI-powered assistant. The company expanded to a free version last October.
“Comet is not just a browser,” Perplexity co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas told CNBC. “It’s meant to be a true personal assistant. … That’s where AI is headed next. It’s not just about delivering answers or being a sycophant chatbot that tells you what you want to hear. It’s truly about delivering value and you being able to delegate tasks to it.”
Perplexity now counts 92% of Fortune 500 companies as users, and has forged partnerships with the likes of Samsung, Deutsche Telekom, Vivo, and Airtel. The company…
