Fireflies Reaches $1 Billion Valuation, Partners With Perplexity to Bring Real-time Web Search to Meetings
"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." - Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity
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The tender offer provides liquidity to early team members who have been with the company for years, reflecting Fireflies' commitment to rewarding those instrumental in building the company. This milestone comes as Fireflies maintains profitability since 2023—a rarity among AI startups—while sustaining triple-digit year-over-year growth without raising primary capital 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."
Fireflies 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 institutional knowledge.
Talk to Fireflies: transforming the meeting experience
With today's launch of "Talk to Fireflies," Fireflies becomes an interactive AI meeting companion that users can engage with via voice ("Hey Fireflies!") or text ("/ff") during meetings—in over 60 languages. In a first-of-its-kind partnership, Fireflies has integrated Perplexity's web search capabilities, allowing users to ask questions and get real-time answers sourced from the internet—all without leaving their meeting.
"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 Fireflies users—including those on free plans—and works 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.'
The feature enables practical use cases such as:
Special offers for customers
As part of the partnership, Fireflies customers on Pro and Business plans can sign up to receive one year of Perplexity Pro at no cost, while 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 these offers via the Perplexity Perks Program. Both companies' existing customers can also look for the offers via email.
Looking ahead
Fireflies plans to conduct more regular tender offers moving forward, prioritizing active team members and reinforcing a long-term ownership mindset within the company. The company is also building toward a new era of intelligent meeting automation, including AI voice agents that can attend meetings entirely on a user's behalf and enhanced "Talk to Fireflies" capabilities, like the ability to search across a user's entire meeting database in the future.
These agentic capabilities mark the next chapter in Fireflies' evolution—transforming how modern teams collaborate, decide, and execute.
Availability
"Talk to Fireflies" with Perplexity's web search is available to all Fireflies customers as of today. Users can activate the feature in Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams meetings by saying "Hey Fireflies" or typing "/ff" in the meeting chat.
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About Fireflies.ai
Fireflies.ai helps millions of people unlock the knowledge buried inside conversations every day. Serving 20+ million people and 500,000+ organizations, Fireflies has processed over 2 billion meeting minutes with users at 75% of Fortune 500 companies. The platform provides enterprise-grade security with private storage options and never uses customer meeting data to train its AI models. Backed by Khosla Ventures and Canaan Partners, Fireflies.ai is a remote-first, global organization employing 100 people across 20+ countries. For more information, visit fireflies.ai.
About Perplexity
Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that draws from credible sources in real time to accurately answer questions with in-line citations, perform deep research, and more. Founded in 2022, the company's mission is to serve the world's curiosity by bridging the gap between traditional search engines and AI-driven interfaces. Each week, Perplexity answers more than 150 million questions globally. Perplexity is available in the app store and online at https://www.perplexity.com.
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All forward-looking statements are based on information and estimates available to the Company at the time of this release, and are not guarantees of future performance, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update any of the statements in this press release. Disclaimer Regarding Ticketing, Creator and Event Metrics This press release includes certain measures related to our ticketing business, such as paid tickets and paid creators. We believe that the use of these metrics is helpful to our investors as these metrics are used by management in assessing the health of our business and our operating performance. These metrics are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates for the applicable period of measurement. There are inherent challenges in measuring these metrics, and we regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating our internal metrics to improve their accuracy. You should not consider these metrics in isolation or as substitutes for analysis of our results of operations as reported under GAAP. 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These measures are not prepared in accordance with GAAP and have limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider them in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results of operations as reported under GAAP. In addition, other companies may not calculate non-GAAP financial measures in the same manner as we calculate them, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures. You are encouraged to evaluate the adjustments and the reasons we consider them appropriate. Some amounts in this press release may not add due to rounding. Adjusted EBITDA We calculate Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense, interest expense, interest income, employer taxes related to employee transactions, other (income) expense net, which consists of foreign exchange rate gains and losses, income tax provision (benefit), and significant and non-recurring legal matters, net of insurance recoveries. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to net income (loss) or any other measure of financial performance calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Beginning in the current fiscal quarter, we updated our definition of Adjusted EBITDA to include certain significant and non-recurring legal matters, net of insurance recoveries, that we consider to be non-recurring and not reflective of our ongoing operations. This change better aligns Adjusted EBITDA with how management evaluates our core operating performance. This change in definition is applied prospectively beginning with the three months ended June 30, 2025. Prior periods have not been recast, as there is no impact to any previously reported amounts. Some of the limitations of Adjusted EBITDA include (i) Adjusted EBITDA does not properly reflect capital spending that occurs off of the income statement or account for future contractual commitments, (ii) although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the underlying assets may need to be replaced and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect these capital expenditures and (iii) Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the interest and principal required to service our indebtedness. In evaluating Adjusted EBITDA, you should be aware that in the future we expect to incur expenses similar to the adjustments in this release. Our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as an inference that future results will be unaffected by these expenses or any unusual or non-routine items. When evaluating performance, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including net income (loss) and other GAAP results. Adjusted EBITDA Margin Adjusted EBITDA Margin is defined as Adjusted EBITDA divided by net revenue. Because of the limitations described above, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin alongside other financial performance measures, including net loss, net loss margin, and other GAAP results.
