Private Markets: Perplexity seeks funding at $20B post-money valuation

Cognition and Cohere were in the spotlight this week with $500M funding rounds. Meanwhile, Perplexity is said to be seeking a new round of funding at a $20B post-money valuation. 

This week’s private company news:

Perplexity is raising yet another round of funding, Business Insider has learned. The AI search engine is seeking fresh investment at a $20B post-money valuation, according to an email sent to prospective investors seen by BI, and a source with knowledge of the raise.

Lambda, a cloud infrastructure firm which counts Nvidia (NVDA) among its backers, is in talks with investors about a funding round that could value the company at $4B-$5B ahead of a potential initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg’s Bailey Lipschultz and Edward Ludlow report. The company could go public as soon as the end of the year, and has had preliminary discussions with bankers to potentially lead the IPO, the people said.

Rivos, a chip startup that aims to compete with Nvidia, is seeking to raise between $400M-$500M, according to two people familiar with the matter, The Information’s Valida Pau and Wayne Ma report. The startup, backed by Intel’s (INTC) CEO Lip-Bu Tan, is seeking a valuation of more than $2B, one of the people said. It’s not clear if the valuation would include the new investment, the authors note. If finalized, the new round would bring Rivos’ total funding to more than $870M since it was founded in 2021. The company is designing a graphics processing unit for release as early as 2026 that could make a dent in Nvidia’s dominance in the artificial intelligence chip market, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Some of the biggest capital raises by private companies this week include: 

• Cognition – The AI coding startup secured almost $500M in new financing round, bringing the company’s valuation to $9.8B. Publicly traded companies in the space include Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Amazon (AMZN).
• Cohere – The company raised $500M at $6.8B valuation to accelerate enterprise efficiency with agentic AI. Publicly traded companies in the space include Microsoft, IBM (IBM) and Meta Platforms (META).
• Celestial AI – The optical interconnect technology addressing the scalability demands of modern AI infrastructure secured a $255M Series C1 funding. Publicly traded companies in the space include Qualcomm (QCOM), Nvidia (NVDA), and Ceva (CEVA).
• Titan Grabs – The AI holding company transforming IT Services with its augmented AI platform announced that it raised $74M in a funding round led by General Catalyst. Publicly traded companies in the space include Akamai (AKAM), Kyndryl Holdings (KD), and Nice (NICE).
• 1Kosmos – The leader in unifying identity proofing and password-less authentication announced it has raised $57M in Series B funding, including a $10M line of credit from Bridge Bank. Publicly traded companies in the space include Okta (OKTA), OneSpan (OSPN), and CyberArk (CYBR).

Unicorns to watch this week:

• Plaid – The financial infrastructure platform has an estimated valuation of $6.1B.  Publicly traded companies in the space Block (XYZ) and Fiserv (FI).
• Runway – With a valuation over $3B, the AI startup specializes in generative multimedia.  Publicly traded companies in the space Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Nvidia (NVDA).
• ReliaQuest – Specializing in AI-driven cybersecurity operations, the company has an estimated valuation of $3.4B. Publicly traded companies in the space Okta (OKTA), Zscaler (ZS), and Crowdstrike (CRWD).
• Anthropic – operating in the AI Safety & Chatbots sector, Anthropic has an estimated valuation of $60B. Publicly traded companies in the space include Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), Amazon (AMZN), IBM (IBM) and Palantir (PLTR).
• Ripple – The blockchain-based payments platform has an estimated valuation of $15.64B and has seen renewed enthusiasm from investors as broader interest in crypto infrastructure and decentralized finance has also increased. Publicly traded companies in the space include PayPal (PYPL), Block (XYZ), Visa (V), and MasterCard (MA).

IPOs to watch:

• Black Rock Coffee Bar – The company has reportedly filed confidentially for an initial public offering in New York that could value the cafe chain at more than $1B.
• Hengguang (HGIA) – The company has filed with the SEC for an initial public offering of its Class A ordinary shares and reserved the symbol “HGIA” for purposes of listing the Class A ordinary shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market. D. Boral Capital is acting as the underwriter.
• Center Mobile (CTMB) – The company has filed with the SEC for a firm commitment initial public offering of ordinary shares, via which it will be offering 3.75M ordinary shares. R.F. Lafferty is listed as the underwriter.
• StubHub – With a market valuation estimated at $16.5B, the event-ticketing giant was expected to make a public debut this year, but after many delays, 2025 seems the most likely date. Stagnant market conditions and a lack of a major consumer IPOs pushed StubHub to continuously postpone its move to come public.
• Mindbody – The fitness and wellness software provider was said to be targeting to go public in the second half of 2025. Back in August of last year, the company said it was aiming to make its public debut in the following 12-18 months. Goldman Sachs was retained as its lead banker.

“Private Markets” is The Fly’s new recurring series of stories on the latest moves in the private sector, largest unicorn companies and initial public offerings to watch. Fly subscribers, add $PRIVATE to your portfolio for alerts on breaking news in the startup and venture capital space.