Fireflies Reaches $1B Unicorn Status and Signs Strategic Partnership With Perplexity

AI meeting platform Fireflies.ai has surpassed a valuation of $1 billion after its first tender offer and announced a partnership with Perplexity to enable real-time web search during meetings.

The strategic partnership with Perplexity brings voice-activated, real-time web search capabilities to meetings through “Talk to Fireflies.” The innovative collaboration enables users to access the world’s knowledge without leaving their conversations.

Reward For Good Work

The tender offer provides liquidity to early team members who have been with the startup for years, reflecting Fireflies’ commitment to rewarding those instrumental in building the company. The startup currently employs 100 people across more than 20 countries.

Related Post: UrbanGeekz 50 2024: Software

Fireflies is defying the odds in the AI startup world. They have been profitable since 2023 – a rare feat in itself—and have sustained triple-digit year-over-year growth. Furthermore, they’ve done it all without relying on fresh capital injections since 2021. 

“We wanted to recognize our earliest employees who’ve been vital to Fireflies’ journey,” said Krish Ramineni, CEO and co-founder of Fireflies.ai. “Reaching this significant valuation milestone while remaining profitable validates our approach to building an AI company differently from the conventional ‘raise big, burn fast’ playbook. This coincides with a larger product evolution that will change how people experience meetings.”

The AI meeting startup has quietly become one of the fastest-growing productivity platforms, serving 20 million people across more than 500,000 organizations globally. Over the past 18 months, user growth has surged 8x, driven by demand for AI tools that streamline meetings, automate workflows, and unlock valuable institutional knowledge.

Talk to Fireflies is Transforming Virtual Meeting Experience

With the launch of “Talk to Fireflies,” the platform becomes an interactive AI meeting companion that users can engage with via voice or text during meetings, in over 60 languages. In a first-of-its-kind partnership, Fireflies has integrated Perplexity’s web search capabilities. This allows users to ask questions and get real-time answers from the internet without leaving their meeting.

Related Post: Interesting Startups To Watch In 2025

“At Perplexity, we’re focused on bringing accurate, real-time answers to people wherever and whenever they’re making decisions,” said Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity. “Meetings are where critical decisions happen, but they’re often information-poor environments. By integrating Perplexity’s search capabilities into Fireflies, we’re eliminating the need to switch contexts or postpone decisions as workers move to question-first problem-solving.”

Unlike features restricted to paid tiers or specific platforms, “Talk to Fireflies” with Perplexity search is available to all users, including those on free plans. The feature integrates seamlessly across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.

“Talk to Fireflies lets people search the web in real-time and get answers about the current meeting. For example, a late joiner can ask, ‘Hey Fireflies, what key decisions have been made so far?’ or a team can find information by asking, ‘Hey Fireflies, what are the market growth projections for AI meeting agents?’,” said Ramineni. “This turns Fireflies into your most knowledgeable teammate.”

This feature supports a range of practical applications, including industry research for strategic planning. Users can ask questions like “What are the latest market trends in online retail?” and receive sourced answers. 

It also provides real-time regulatory updates, such as current SEC reporting requirements, and enables competitive landscape analysis by identifying key players in specific industries. Additionally, it offers technical insights to inform decision-making, like explanations of authentication protocols such as OAuth and SAML.

Fireflies.ai Special Offers for Customers and Path Forward

As part of the partnership, Fireflies customers on Pro and Business plans can sign up for one year of Perplexity Pro at no cost. Meanwhile, enterprise customers can get three months of Perplexity Enterprise Pro free. Likewise, Perplexity Pro customers can receive three months of Fireflies Business, and Perplexity Enterprise Pro customers can get three months of Fireflies Enterprise. 

Fireflies customers will have access to these offers within their user dashboard, while Perplexity customers will be able to access them via the Perplexity Perks Program. Both companies’ existing customers can also look for the offers through email.

Related Post: Meet 10 Black American C-Suite Leaders Spearheading Tech & Innovation

“We plan to continually roll out superpowers that can help teams function better,” Sam Udotong, CEO and CTO of Fireflies, said on his LinkedIn. “At the same time, some of the biggest names in tech are just entering this space. This isn’t surprising.”

The remote-first, global organization is also building toward a new era of intelligent meeting automation. This includes AI voice agents that can attend meetings entirely on a user’s behalf. This will enhance “Talk to Fireflies” capabilities, like searching across a user’s entire meeting database. 

Users can ask questions on Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams, such as: “When is the new iPhone coming out?” “What is the CRM market share of the top 3 companies?” or” What’s the difference between MCP and LLMs?”

These agentic capabilities mark the next chapter in Fireflies‘ evolution, transforming how modern teams collaborate, decide, and execute.

Main Image: Krish Ramineni and Sam Udotong, Fireflies Co-founders. Image Credit: Fireflies