Perplexity CEO Says,

Aravind Srinivas, CEO of the AI-driven search engine Perplexity, recently participated in a Reddit discussion about the company, stating that the startup is not experiencing any major financial issues.

“We have all the funding we've raised, and our revenue is only growing,” Srinivas stated. “We have no plans of IPOing before 2028.”

Earlier, a Reddit user posted that the company was facing financial struggles, which had prompted it to adopt cost-cutting measures. The post pointed to several signs suggesting that Perplexity was "doing horribly financially."

One example cited was Perplexity’s Auto mode, which the user claimed keeps switching follow-up questions back to auto, rather than the model previously selected. The post also suggested that high-quality models like o1 were no longer available, possibly as a cost-saving measure.

In response, Srinivas explained that Perplexity developed the Auto mode because: “All AI products right now are shipping non-stop and adding a ton of buttons and dropdown menus and clutter,” which he described as “not sustainable”.

Acknowledgment of quality concerns

Srinivas acknowledged that Perplexity’s emphasis on rapid launches and new features like Answer mode has resulted in quality issues, bugs, and confusion.

The CEO apologized for the recent decline in quality and the lack of transparency, vowing to implement stronger processes moving forward.