Perplexity Ad Chief Taz Patel Departs

Taz Patel, head of promoting and procuring on the AI search startup Perplexity, has left the corporate after 9 months, the startup confirmed to ADWEEK.Patel joined Perplexity in December 2024, and was tasked with constructing out the 3-year-old startup’s fledgling adverts enterprise. He was beforehand chief income officer and co-founder of the influencer-marketing agency Captiv8, which was acquired by Publicis Groupe in Could of this 12 months.Perplexity declined to touch upon who, if anybody, would substitute Patel. Patel didn’t reply to requests for remark.“It’s been nice to have Taz on our crew, and we want him all the most effective in his future endeavors,” Ryan Foutty, Perplexity’s vp of enterprise advised ADWEEK in an announcement. “Perplexity is pushed by velocity and curiosity, so our work continues unchanged and we nonetheless accomplice with the world’s finest entrepreneurs and retailers who need to experiment and develop the most effective shopper experiences for the AI age.” ADWEEK first reported on Perplexity’s promoting ambitions in April final 12 months. Since then, the corporate has introduced on a handful of manufacturers and businesses—together with TurboTax, Certainly, Entire Meals, Common McCann and PMG—to check sponsored adverts on its U.S. platform. Perplexity, which raised $100 million in July, is valued at about $18 billion. The corporate’s advert enterprise reportedly generated solely about $20,000 in This fall final 12 months, although it has additionally expanded into on-line procuring, permitting customers to purchase merchandise surfaced in search by PayPal and Venmo.CEO Aravind Srinivas stated in March that Perplexity had surpassed $100 million in annualized income, up 25% from January. To achieve new customers, the corporate spent almost $10 million final 12 months—about half its payroll bills—on gross sales and advertising, together with its first nationwide TV marketing campaign throughout ABC’s broadcast of the 2024 NBA Finals, based on The Info. Perplexity additionally spent virtually $5 million on authorized charges.Perplexity has additionally experimented with unconventional methods to achieve new customers, together with partnering with video podcasts and streaming reveals from Theo Von and Ben Shapiro to reply real-time questions.The New York Instances has warned Perplexity to cease utilizing its content material, and earlier this month Japanese publishers Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun filed a joint lawsuit making related claims of copyright infringement. Perplexity this week introduced plans to share 80% of income from Comet Plus, its browser-based subscription product, with publishers—a part of its effort to safe licensing offers amid these mounting authorized challenges.Correction, August 29 at 12:25 p.m. ET: An earlier model of this text incorrectly stated that The New York Instances had sued Perplexity. It had warned the corporate of authorized motion in a cease-and-desist letter.