Perplexity, the brainchild behind an AI-driven search engine, is in the process of raising a whopping $50 million seed and pre-seed investment fund, as disclosed by CNBC. The majority of the funding is provided by restricted partners, however Perplexity is reinvesting some of this money to support its own expansion.The ambitious tech titan reportedly amassed $500 million in December with a dazzling $9 billion valuation.

Experienced managing partners Joanna Lee Shevelenko and Kelly Graziadei are in charge of overseeing Perplexity's fund. They cut their teeth in the venture capital world when they co-founded an early-stage venture firm, F7 Ventures, back in 2018, as per PitchBook data. F7 has given wings to startups such as women's health champion Midi. The future of F7 still hangs in the balance, as it's uncertain whether Graziadei and Shevelenko will maintain their roles at F7 or fully devote their efforts to spearheading Perplexity's venture fund.

In the same vein, OpenAI oversees an investment fund known as the OpenAI Startup Fund. But there's a twist: in contrast to Perplexity, OpenAI asserts that it doesn't funnel its own capital into these investment ventures.