Perplexity isn’t the first search engine seeking to entice users away from Google. It’s only one of the latest, and one of a very few that use generative artificial intelligence to power its results.

Founded in 2022 by former employees of OpenAI, Meta, Quora, and Databricks, Perplexity hit the scene just around the same time ChatGPT launched. Soon, it began making headlines for its mouth watering valuation and the millions it was raising from notable investors.

Despite quickly becoming a valuable company, Perplexity is very much an underdog. Its estimated valuation of between $1 billion and $3 billion pales in comparison to OpenAI’s $100 billion price tag and its search engine processes less than 1% of user queries in an entire year than Google does in a month, based on figures available for 2023.