Perplexity Acquires Data Connectivity Startup Carbon

AI search engine Perplexity has acquired Carbon, a startup specialising in connecting external data sources to large language models. The acquisition aims to strengthen Perplexity’s ability to integrate directly with tools like Notion, Google Docs, and other applications.

This would also allow users to streamline workflows and access information from diverse sources, such as internal databases, cloud storage, and document repositories.

Commenting on the acquisition, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas shared on LinkedIn, “Starting early next year, Perplexity will not just let you search over the web. It will also connect to your Notion, Docs, Slack, and more. I am excited about the Carbon AI team joining us to work on this.”

The Carbon team will join Perplexity to accelerate the development of new features and expand the platform's capabilities. This move is part of Perplexity’s broader goal to provide personalised AI solutions for users, optimising their workflows across home, work, and mobile environments.

Earlier this week, the company announced a three-month full-time residency program in San Francisco for recent graduates and early-stage career professionals. The program offers an opportunity to gain experience in a rapidly evolving AI ecosystem.

Perplexity is often touted as a GPT wrapper. Commenting on the nature of wrappers when it comes to value addition, Srinivas further said, “Wrappers are at all levels; it’s just that they have given you so much value that you do not care.”

In 2024, Perplexity launched Enterprise Pro, reasoning capabilities, spaces feature, internal file search, and new search features like shopping insights and live earnings call analysis, among others. Next year, the company aims to improve its answer engine and broaden connectivity options.