Who Is Behind Perplexity AI? Meet the 4 Co-Founders

Perplexity AI, the answer engine that has rapidly become a major player in AI-powered search, was founded in August 2022 by a team of four engineers who brought together experience from some of the most influential AI labs in the world .

The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California .

The Four Co-Founders

Aravind Srinivas — CEO, President & Co-Founder

Aravind Srinivas serves as the CEO and a co-founder of Perplexity AI. Before founding the company, he was a researcher at OpenAI, Google, and DeepMind . He holds a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley (PhD '21) . Srinivas has described his own curiosity about a more transparent and verifiable AI-powered search experience as the driving force behind Perplexity .

Denis Yarats — CTO & Co-Founder

Denis Yarats is the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Perplexity AI. He previously worked as an AI research scientist at Meta AI .

Johnny Ho — Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder

Johnny Ho serves as Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder. Prior to Perplexity, he worked as an engineer at Quora .

Andy Konwinski — President, Board Member & Co-Founder

Andy Konwinski is a co-founder, President, and Board Member of Perplexity AI. He is a UC Berkeley alumnus and previously co-founded Databricks .

Early Investors

Key early investors who backed Perplexity AI in its early days include Elad Gil and Nat Friedman .