Wayra, Telefónica’s start-up accelerator, invests in Perplexity

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
Fachada de las oficinas de Telefónica

Wayrathe corporate venture capital of Telephone, has announced its investment in the American artificial intelligence company Perplexity. In addition, the telecommunications company has reached a commercial agreement with the technology company to offer preferential services to its customers in Brazil, the United Kingdom and Spain.

With this move, Wayra joins a solid investor list in Perplexity, among which are companies such as Nvidia or Databricks, and entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon; or Stanley Druckenmiller, Founder of Duquesne Capital.

Telefónica has not revealed the amount of the investment in Perplexity.

Perplexity is one of the leading companies in AI-based search engines

The investment, as explained by Telefónica in a statement, responds to the Perplexity’s differential proposal in the field of internet search engines. The company has developed a search engine based on artificial intelligence with a conversational interface that offers precise and contextualized answers.

The investment in Perplexity AI is part of one of the new keys to Wayra’s investment strategy in leading technology markets such as the United States, in companies with a high growth rate with global presence and reach and leaders in technologies such as AI”, explained Chema Alonso, Chief Digital Officer of Telefónica.

This investment from Wayra not only validates our AI-powered approach, but also opens up exciting global expansion opportunities.“; said, for his part, Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and CEO of Perplexity. “We look forward to continuing to collaborate with Telefónica to push the boundaries of what is possible in AI-powered information discovery and create transformative experiences for users around the world.”.

In addition to the investment, Telefónica has reached an agreement with Perplexity to integrate AI capabilities and provide services to its customers. The telecommunications company assures that this reinforces its commitment to incorporation of cutting-edge technology and offer new experiences.

Along these lines, Telefónica claims to have launched the first Perplexity experience through television. And it has developed a living app exclusive within Movistar Plus+ that allows users who have a UHD decoder to easily interact with the AI ​​platform. Through the Movistar Plus+ Voice Control and by pressing the Aura button, you can make queries and receive text responses in real time that are displayed on the screen and also spoken.

Telefónica will expand the details of the movement at Innovation Day 2024, an event that will explore the latest technologies and innovations developed by the company, all under the motto “(Un)expected connections”.