Fireflies.ai, the AI meeting assistant used in 75% of Fortune 500 companies, has reached a $1B valuation following its first tender offer in a move that signals a new era for workplace productivity tools. The announcement coincides with the launch of its latest innovation, Talk to Fireflies, a voice-activated AI meeting assistant with real-time web search capabilities powered by Perplexity.
For remote teams juggling constant meetings and tight decision cycles, instant access to reliable information can be a game-changer. Fireflies is betting on this unmet need. Rather than toggling between meeting apps and web browsers or postponing decisions due to missing data, users can now speak directly to Fireflies during meetings and get sourced answers on the spot-freeing up time, reducing friction, and boosting informed collaboration.
Voice-led AI meetings meet the power of search
With its new Talk to Fireflies feature, the San Francisco-based company enables participants to interact using voice or chat in over 60 languages across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. By integrating Perplexity’s web search technology, Fireflies gives users real-time access to online information, without ever leaving the meeting environment.
“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 Fireflies co-founder and CEO Krish Ramineni. “This turns Fireflies into your most knowledgeable teammate.”
Perplexity’s Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko added, “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.”
From humble roots to a global AI meeting platform
Fireflies was founded by Krish Ramineni and Sam Udotong, who met while studying at the University of Pennsylvania and later at MIT. Ramineni, originally from India, worked at Microsoft before co-founding Fireflies. Udotong, a Nigerian-American with a background in aerospace engineering and computer science, brought a deep technical skillset and a passion for making communication more efficient.
The duo launched the company with a vision to eliminate the friction in meetings by automating notetaking and surfacing institutional knowledge. Diversity has remained central to the company’s DNA, with a globally distributed team of 100 employees across more than 20 countries.
Behind Fireflies: Billion-dollar milestone without the burn
Fireflies’ valuation increase stems from a tender offer-rather than a traditional funding round-which provided liquidity to long-serving employees. Unusually for an AI startup, the company has remained profitable since 2023 and hasn’t raised primary capital since 2021, despite maintaining triple-digit year-over-year growth.
“We wanted to recognise our earliest employees who’ve been vital to Fireflies’ journey,” said Ramineni. “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.”
The AI startup is backed by top-tier investors including Khosla Ventures and Canaan Partners. Khosla has previously supported game-changing companies such as OpenAI, Square, and DoorDash, while Canaan has a long-standing track record with firms like Instacart and LendingClub.
New capabilities, expanding AI meeting opportunities
The Talk to Fireflies feature isn’t limited to premium plans. It is available to all users, including those on free tiers, and includes generous cross-promotional offers. Fireflies Pro and Business customers receive up to one year of Perplexity Pro free, while Perplexity Enterprise Pro users can get Fireflies Enterprise for three months at no cost.
Beyond real-time search, Fireflies’ AI can answer questions like, “What are the current SEC reporting requirements for private companies?” or “Who are the top three players in the contract management space?” This enables use cases such as strategy development, regulatory checks, and competitive intelligence-all within the meeting.
Looking ahead: beyond the meeting room
The company is developing “agentic” capabilities that will let AI attend meetings entirely on behalf of users and plans to enhance the Talk to Fireflies feature to search a user’s complete meeting history. These developments are set to further cement Fireflies’ position in the AI-powered collaboration market.
The company also plans to conduct more regular tender offers, reinforcing its long-term approach to employee ownership and value creation.
Competitive landscape of Fireflies and differentiation
In a market that includes players like Otter.ai, Zoom AI Companion, and Microsoft Copilot, the startup differentiates itself with its cross-platform compatibility, real-time web search, and a freemium model that ensures accessibility for individual users and small teams.
Moreover, the company stresses privacy and security, never using customer data to train its AI models and offering enterprise-grade options for private storage.
Bridging knowledge gaps, one AI meeting at a time
The company has now processed over 2B minutes of meetings, serving more than 20M users across 500,000 organisations. With the launch of Talk to Fireflies and its continued focus on intelligent meeting automation, the company aims to redefine how modern teams communicate, decide, and execute-without ever leaving the conversation.
