Perplexity, a US startup, plans to go public on the stock exchange by 2028 and increase its annual recurring revenue to approximately one billion US dollars by 2026, according to its CEO and co-founder, Aravind Srinivas. Srinivas told the “Handelsblatt” that the company intends to give itself at least three more years before its initial public offering (IPO). By the time of the IPO, Perplexity aims to achieve a positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) result.
Srinivas also reaffirmed the company’s desire to merge with the US part of the video platform TikTok. The company had submitted a bid, along with other interested parties, in January. The negotiations, in which Bytedance, TikTok’s parent company and the US government are also involved, are ongoing, with no decision yet made on who will acquire the stake.
Perplexity reportedly plans to build a machine learning algorithm for TikTok and transform the app’s internal search function into a genuine search engine. Even if Perplexity does not win the bid, the company’s CEO said it would offer cooperation to the new TikTok co-owner. “That would be fine with me” Srinivas stated, adding that the new owner would undoubtedly benefit from Perplexity’s help, regardless of the outcome.