Perplexity AI looks for talent to expand in India

Perplexity AI the start-up that launched an AI-powered search engine in 2022, facilitating a speech based open source search, is looking to expand its operations in India, its co-founder Arvind Srinivas has said.

Perplexity offers a voice-based alternative to Google’s online data-based search, but has not emerged as a competitor yet.

The start-up, which was jointly founded by Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski, in August 2022, has attracted attention worldwide. It also has over a million users in India. 

In a post on X on Saturday, Srinivas said he wanted talent to grow Perplexity in India. He said he would prefer someone based in India and ready to work in India. He also said he is looking for someone who is ready to meet people and discuss matters with them.

Srinivas also provided the e-mail link for interested candidates to apply, with their resume and a brief description of their achievements.

Srinavas, who had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December, also said in a LinkedIn post that the work will be both fun and intense, and would involve travelling and meeting with strategic partners and institutions, all on a “startup mode.”Srinivas said, during his meeting with the prime minister, they discussed about AI adoption, its applications in various sectors, ethical development and adapting AI to local problem solving as also its potential impact on India.

Srinivas, an alumnus of IIT Madras, had earlier worked with DeepMind, Google, and OpenAI before co-founding Perplexity AI. 

The Perplexity CEO, who was looking to migrate to the US, was frustrated by the delays in getting a Green Card. Obviously, this might have prompted him to expand operations in India.

The company has received funding from the likes of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke, NVIDIA and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), and has a current valuation of $9 billion, following a recent $500 million funding round.