Former Twitter CEO's AI startup raises funding at $2 billion valuation

Parallel Web Systems raised $100 million in a Series B, earning a valuation of $2 billion. The round was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, and Khosla Ventures. Sequoia partner Andrew Reed joined the board as part of the deal.

The company is a web search infrastructure startup founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. It has about 50 employees, and last November it raised $100 million in a Series A at a valuation of $740 million, bringing its total funding raised to $230 million.

Parallel builds a platform that helps AI agents search the web more efficiently and accurately. Its applications include deep research work such as investment and risk underwriting research, insurance claims processing, and government contract review.

Harvey uses this platform to automate research-based legal work. Harvey says that rather than simply connecting to search, agents need more granular control over which websites they access, and Parallel provides that control.

Parallel says more than 100,000 developers use its infrastructure, including AI-native startups and enterprise customers. Competitors targeting the same space include Tavily and Exa. Agrawal has been preparing dedicated infrastructure since 2023, believing agents would use the web far more than humans do. Andrew Reed said the spread of long-horizon AI agents that run autonomously for extended periods is growing this market.