Perplexity acquires the team behind Sequioa-backed AI design startup Visual Electric

In a significant move within the tech landscape, Perplexity has officially announced its acquisition of Visual Electric, a design startup previously backed by Sequoia. This transition will see the talented team at Visual Electric integrating into Perplexity’s newly formed Agent Experiences group. Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, took to social media platform X to confirm the acquisition, expressing enthusiasm about the collaboration. He stated, "We've acquired @visualelectric. The team led by @colin_dunn and @adammenges is fantastic, and they will work together with us on new consumer product experiences that we're excited to ship to all Perplexity and Comet users pretty soon!" The details surrounding the financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed. As part of this transition, Perplexity will discontinue Visual Electric as a standalone product within the next 90 days. Users will have the opportunity to export their data, and subscribers can expect prorated refunds, ensuring a smooth transition. Founded in 2022, Visual Electric was the brainchild of Colin Dunn, a former Facebook and Dropbox employee, Adam Menges, who previously worked at Apple, and Zach Stiggelbout, a former Microsoft engineer. The startup developed a tool that allowed designers to create AI-generated images and make edits on an infinite canvas, facilitating the ideation process much like a digital whiteboard. Over time, they expanded their offerings to include video generation capabilities. Visual Electric had successfully raised $2.5 million in funding from notable investors including Sequoia, BoxGroup, and Designer Fund.