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Perplexity Raises $200M; Hits $20B Valuation, AI Prompting & Productivity Tools

AI Stack Saturday – Week of September 13, 2025

Author

Tirupati Rao
September 13, 2025

Table of Content

  • Perplexity Raises $200M; Hits $20B Valuation

  • Today’s AI Tool

  • This Week’s AI Tool Updates

  • Today’s Prompt

  • AI News Highlights

  • Productivity Tools

  • Useful Resources

  • Digital Products by itirupati.com

Perplexity Raises $200M; Hits $20B Valuation

AI search startup Perplexity has secured $200M in fresh funding, pushing its valuation to $20B—just months after hitting an $18B mark. The company, now nearing $200M in ARR, is scaling GPU capacity and chasing big enterprise deals.

Perplexity’s Pages add-on, which auto-generates research briefs from long queries, is already its top driver of paid sign-ups. With 15M daily users, it’s fast becoming Google’s most credible challenger.

💡 Key Takeaways:

  • Funding: $200M raised, $1.5B total to date.

  • Valuation: $20B, up from $18B in July.

  • Growth: ARR close to $200M; 15M daily active users.

  • Strategy: Scaling GPUs, targeting enterprise knowledge bases, and pushing pay-per-query API.

  • Competition: Directly challenging Google’s dominance in search with an ad-free, conversational model.

Today’s AI Tool: Clueso

Turn raw screen recordings into studio-quality product videos & step-by-step docs in minutes.

Clueso is the fastest way for SaaS teams to create software demos, explainers, and help articles without video editors or writers. Just upload a rough screen recording, and Clueso does the rest—scriptwriting, AI voiceover, effects, and polished branding.

✨ Key Features:

  • AI Video Creation — Auto-scripts your video, adds synced AI voiceovers, zooms, highlights, and branding.

  • Help Articles — Converts recordings into step-by-step guides with screenshots.

  • Translations — One-click support for 30+ languages.

  • Easy Updates — Swap outdated clips or voiceovers without starting from scratch.

Clueso is already helping SaaS product teams ship training content and documentation 20x faster.

🔗 Try it here → Clueso.io

This Week’s AI Tool Updates

  • Adobe Experience Platform Agents General Availability
    Adobe released AI agents like Journey, Audience, Data Insights, and Site Optimization—bringing campaign orchestration and support capabilities to Experience Cloud.

  • Microsoft Copilot Personal Shopping Agent Preview
    Retail brands like Ralph Lauren are testing AI shopping agents built with Copilot Studio—delivering personalized product suggestions via chat on web and in-store.

  • AI Actions in File Explorer (Windows 11 Insider)
    Windows Canary build 27938 introduces AI "Click To Do" options in File Explorer—for example, auto-image editing tasks and enhanced privacy controls.

  • Seedream 4.0 Launch by ByteDance
    TikTok’s parent pushes into AI image generation with Seedream 4.0, claiming better alignment, aesthetics, and prompt adherence than Google’s Nano Banana—though benchmarks await official release.

  • Kimi-K2-Instruct-0905 Released (Moonshot AI)
    The open-source Chinese AI model Kimi now offers 256K-token context support, advanced coding performance, and ultra-long text processing—setting a new benchmark in multitasking LLMs.

Today’s Prompt: Lead Generation Strategy

Problem: Half-baked marketing plans and scattershot tactics waste time and budget.

Solution: Paste this prompt into ChatGPT, fill the blanks, and get a ready-to-run, 10+ row lead-generation plan in a clean Markdown table—scalable, measurable, and aligned with your goals.

Prompt:

Adopt the role of an expert marketing strategist tasked with developing a comprehensive lead generation strategy. Your primary objective is to create a detailed plan to attract and convert potential customers for a specific business type. Take a deep breath and work on this problem step-by-step. Begin by analyzing the target audience and their needs. Then, brainstorm innovative lead generation tactics that align with the business type and audience preferences. For each tactic, determine appropriate success metrics to measure its effectiveness. Consider various channels such as social media, content marketing, email campaigns, and paid advertising. Ensure that the strategy is scalable, cost-effective, and aligned with the overall business goals.

#INFORMATION ABOUT ME:
My business type: [INSERT TYPE OF BUSINESS]
My target audience: [DESCRIBE TARGET AUDIENCE]
My current marketing channels: [LIST CURRENT MARKETING CHANNELS]
My budget constraints: [SPECIFY BUDGET CONSTRAINTS]
My primary business goals: [LIST PRIMARY BUSINESS GOALS]

MOST IMPORTANT!: Present your output in a markdown table format with three columns: Lead Generation Tactics, Target Audience, and Success Metrics. Provide at least 10 rows of comprehensive strategies.

How to use: paste, fill the bracketed fields, hit run. Use the gap-check response to supply any quick clarifications — then watch ChatGPT output a structured plan you can implement this week.

AI News Highlights

Your 2-Minute Download of What’s Actually Changing in AI. 👇

  • ASML Becomes Top Investor in Mistral AI: Invests €1.3B to lead the €1.7B Series C, making it the largest shareholder.

  • AI at NY Fashion Week: Ralph Lauren and Alexander Wang debut AI-powered tools—personal styling assistants and generative runway visuals.

  • FTC Probing AI Companions for Kids: New inquiry targets chatbot safety measures for children using AI companionship.

  • Apple Sued Over AI Book Training: Authors claim Apple/OpenAI trained their books without permission, sparking copyright debate.

  • CBS Warns on Deepfake Threats: New report highlights growing realism and misuse risk of AI-generated videos.

  • Ambient AI Hits Homes: Smart lighting tech now adapts to conversations, raising privacy concerns alongside convenience.

  • OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Parental Controls: Routes sensitive chats to specialized models for teen safety.

  • ChatGPT Adds Branching Conversations: Users can now fork chats mid-conversation for organized workflows.

  • Databricks Raises $1B in Mega-Round: AI data platform garners largest VC interest this week.

  • Cognition AI Secures $400M: Valued at $10.2B to expand its AI coding assistant platform.

💰 AI Startup Funding Highlights

  • Mistral AI: €1.7 B Series C led by ASML, valuing company at €11.7 B.

  • PsiQuantum: $1 B Series E led by BlackRock and Nvidia, pushing quantum-computing roadmap.

  • Cognition AI: $400 M for AI-driven coding agents, now valued at ~$10.2 B.

  • ProRata.ai: $40 M Series B launched “Gist Answers” AI search tool for publishers.

  • Altan (Barcelona): $2.5 M pre-seed round to build agentic app-builder via voice/text prompts.

Check out more updates (only summaries, no big articles) → itirupati.com/ai-pulse

Productivity AI Tools

1. DeepSeek
An open-source AI model for advanced reasoning, math, coding, and problem-solving. Cost-effective API, seamless with OpenAI, and built for long-context tasks.
deepseek.com

2. TheLibrarian
A WhatsApp AI assistant that manages email, calendar, files, and tasks across Google apps, Slack, and Notion — helping you focus on what matters.
thelibrarian.io

3. Collate
A free offline PDF assistant that summarizes, chats with, and organizes PDFs. Works 100% offline for privacy-first learning and research.
collate.one

4. Memorae
AI reminders and task lists delivered straight to WhatsApp. Simple, fast, and effective task management without switching apps.
memorae.ai

5. Saidar
An AI-powered personal assistant that automates workflows with 50+ apps. Handles scheduling, research, and multi-step tasks with ease.
saidar.ai

Useful Resources

A curated list of YouTube channels offering clear AI news updates, practical tutorials, and deep dives into artificial intelligence. Channels like Two Minute Papers, Matt Wolfe, and AI Explained provide accessible content for learners at all levels.

Explore top AI learning platforms offering practical skills, certifications, and real-world projects. Platforms like OpenAI Academy, Coursera, and edX provide structured learning paths to enhance your AI expertise.

Courses – Hands-on AI and machine learning courses designed by Andrew Ng’s team for practical learning.

Digital Products by itirupati.com

Skip the setup phase. Our templates come with proven workflows, formulas, and automations already config

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See you next Saturday—until then, stay curious!

– Team itirupati.com