Most of you may have heard about Aravind Srinivas. A name common to AI-centric news lately, Srinivas has been making inroads into the AI scene in India by recently cracking a deal with Bharti Airtel to provide free membership to Perplexity Pro for an entire year. However, his name is crucial for reasons other than the Airtel deal extending free access to his brand’s Pro subscription.
The Indian-origin co-founder along with Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski, founded Perplexity in 2022 as an AI-based search engine rivalling the popular Google Search. Unlike rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, Perplexity utilised its AI models to create a search engine that responds with conversational answers along with clear citations for verification. The idea worked, with more people slowly transitioning from the link-returning Google Search to a solution-based answer approach of Perplexity.
Why is Arvind Srinivas making headlines?
The CEO of Perplexity AI is making significant waves in the artificial intelligence landscape, positioning his conversational search engine as a top competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, with most credits going to the Indian-origin founder. Srinivas, who was a former Google researcher, left the tech giant to make his vision into reality. He wanted to create a more transparent and verifiable AI-powered search experience.
Perplexity AI has rapidly grown ever since, achieving a multi-billion dollar valuation of $18 billion by July 2025. A crucial development for Perplexity AI came in May 2025 with a strategic partnership with Bharti Airtel, extending free access to Perplexity Pro to 360 million Indian users. This collaboration has significantly boosted Perplexity’s global reach, contributing to its current user base of over 30 million active users and 780 million monthly queries.
Perplexity AI has also innovated with its AI browser called Comet. The brower is designed for voice-first web interaction, and is focusing on enterprise solutions and revenue-sharing models for publishers.
A little info on Srinivasan
Arvind Srinivas began his journey in Chennai, Tamil Nadu where he was fuelled by his mother’s aspiration to attend IIT Madras. After graduating in 2017 with dual degrees in Electrical Engineering, he faced initial academic hurdles that prevented a direct switch to Computer Science at IIT. However, his passion for machine learning led him to self-teach Python and excel in Kaggle competitions. He interned under deep learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio, ultimately leading him to pursue a PhD in Artificial Intelligence at UC Berkeley.
Despite acquisition interest from major tech companies like Apple and Meta, Srinivas says he remains committed to Perplexity’s independence, with an initial public offering (IPO) eyed post-2028. His story underscores the power of ambition and a clear vision in transforming industries.
