Cohere vs Perplexity AI
Side-by-side equity comparison for employees weighing offers at Cohere or Perplexity AI. Valuations, funding history, headcount growth, and secondary-market context.
| Cohere | Perplexity AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Latest valuation | $7B | $5B |
| Latest round | Series D | Series B |
| Round date | January 2025 | — |
| Total raised | $970M | $500M |
| Founded | 2019 | 2022 |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Canada | San Francisco, CA |
| Employees | 846 | 1,482 |
| Employee YoY growth | +4% | -4% |
| Primary industry | Artificial Intelligence | Artificial Intelligence |
| Secondary-market price | $126.69 | — |
| Base-case equity multiple | 1x | 2x |
| Upside equity multiple | 2x | 2x |
| Lead investors | Nvidia, Oracle | NEA, IVP |
| Status | private | private |
Overview
Cohere builds enterprise-grade large language models and NLP tools that enable businesses to deploy generative AI for search, summarization, and conversational applications with a focus on data privacy and security.
Perplexity AI builds an AI-powered search engine that provides cited, conversational answers to user queries in real time.
Why we compare these
Cohere and Perplexity AI both appear on AI foundation model labs .
If you're evaluating offers at either one, the equity math depends on more than the headline valuation — dilution, strike price, time to liquidity, and concentration risk all matter. Use our equity compensation calculator and exit calculator to model your own numbers.