How to Invest in Perplexity Pre-IPO

Is Perplexity publicly traded?

Perplexity is not currently publicly traded. The company is still very young, founded in August 2022 by Andy Konwinski, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Aravind Srinivas.

Srinivas previously worked at OpenAI, the company generally considered the leader in generative AI, and is now Perplexity's CEO. So far, Perplexity has had seven funding rounds, including four late-stage rounds, meaning the company is in a stage where it could go public.

It typically takes several years for even the most promising companies to go from founding to publicly traded.

When will Perplexity IPO?

There have been no reports of Perplexity's plans to go public, and CEO Aravind Srinivas has said that an IPO isn't planned for any time before 2028.

Since the company was founded in just 2022, that would still represent a relatively quick path from founded to going public. With the exception of the dot-com era, when new companies were racing to go public to capitalize on insatiable investor demand for internet companies, even the brightest tech IPOs have taken several years to materialize.

Alphabet (GOOG +0.44%)(GOOGL +0.46%), formerly known as Google, took six years to go from its 1998 founding to its 2004 IPO, while Meta Platforms (META +0.02%), then known as Facebook, took eight years to go public from its 2004 founding. More recently, high-profile IPOs like Airbnb and Uber took 10 years or more to go public.

After the wave of dot-com busts, investors tend to be more cautious with IPOs and will want to see a track record of growth and profitability, in addition to evidence that the AI boom is sustainable. It's likely to take at least a few more years for Perplexity to be able to deliver convincing evidence around those expectations, even with its success in raising money so far.

How to buy Perplexity stock

Since Perplexity isn't publicly traded, you can't buy the stock directly. However, there are ways for investors to get exposure. You could invest through a venture capital firm or buy shares by funding employee stock purchases, although those options are typically available only to accredited investors with substantial net worth. An easier way is to invest in stocks that own shares of Perplexity.

Is Perplexity profitable?

Perplexity is just over three years old and starting to earn revenue. In March 2025, Srinivas said that the company had crossed $100 million in annualized revenue, and its Perplexity Pro product jumped 6.3x over the last years. He also called it highly undermonetized. Tech companies are known for investing in growth in early stages to maximize their market share before focusing on profit later, and Perplexity is likely to follow the same path.

Perplexity is trying to disrupt Google in search, so it's chasing a massive addressable market. The company will likely continue investing in improving its product, getting the necessary computing infrastructure to grow the business, and marketing the product to grow its customer base and spread positive word-of-mouth.

Should I invest in Perplexity?

Perplexity is such a young company that it's difficult to evaluate it on financials. Investors should judge the company based on its growth potential and its likelihood of capturing the market opportunity in front of it.

According to BrightEdge, a leader in AI search marketing, Perplexity is seeing its share of organic search grow 39% monthly, meaning it's growing by several hundred percent annually. As of mid-2025, Perplexity had 22 monthly active users, although only a small fraction were paid users.

In one promising sign for the company, Apple said it had discussed that it was considering using Perplexity as an alternative to Google Search or as an option for search with Siri. Additionally, Samsung has also held talks with Perplexity about investing in the company, having its app pre-installed on its phones, and integrating its search features in its browser.

Another positive sign that investing in Perplexity could be a smart move is the list of people who have already invested in the start-up. Those include tech industry bigwigs like Amazon (AMZN -1.84%) founder Jeff Bezos, Shopify (SHOP -0.39%) CEO Tobi Lutke, and former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, among others.

ETFs with exposure to Perplexity

There are no exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with direct exposure to Perplexity because Perplexity isn't publicly traded. However, because Nvidia (NVDA -0.49%) and SoftBank (OTC:SOBK.Y) are investors in Perplexity, you can get indirect exposure by investing in one of the numerous ETFs that hold Nvidia or Softbank. Both of those companies are large so your exposure will be limited.

You could invest in a basic index fund, like the Vanguard 500 Fund (VOO -0.51%) or the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ -0.96%), to gain exposure to Nvidia. You also could choose something more focused, such as the Van Eck Semiconductor ETF (SMH -1.94%), which will give you more exposure to Nvidia and, by extension, Perplexity.

Although buying an ETF like this will technically give you some exposure to Perplexity, it will be minimal due to the company's small size as a percentage of Nvidia or Softbank's value, and of the ETFs that hold those stocks. You could also consider buying an AI ETF, which will offer exposure to AI stocks, such as Nvidia, although not to privately held companies like Perplexity.

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