Fireflies.ai announced it has reached a valuation of over $1 billion following its first tender offer. The company also unveiled a strategic partnership with Perplexity to bring voice-activated, real-time web search capabilities to meetings through "Talk to Fireflies," enabling users to access the world's knowledge without leaving their conversations.
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 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 similar 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:
Industry research during strategic planning: "Hey Fireflies, what are the latest market trends in online retail? Include your sources."
Real-time regulatory information: "Hey Fireflies, what are the current SEC reporting requirements for private companies?"
Competitive landscape analysis: "Hey Fireflies, who are the top 3 players in the contract management space?"
Technical information for decision-making: "Hey Fireflies, what's the difference between OAuth and SAML authentication?"
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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