Artificial intelligence startup Parallel Web Systems, founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, has raised $100 million in Series A funding to develop web search infrastructure for AI agents and secure deals with online content owners. The funding round values the company at $740 million and was co-led by venture firms Kleiner Perkins and Index Ventures, with participation from existing investor Khosla Ventures.
Parallel aims to address what it calls a major shift in internet use, as AI agents increasingly become the main users of the web. The company builds application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow AI systems to search the live web for up-to-date information needed to complete various tasks.
Agrawal said enterprise clients use Parallel to power AI agents that write software code, analyse customer data, and assess risk in insurance underwriting, areas where access to high-quality web data is essential. “How many jobs are there where we could turn off web access and ask you to do the same job fully?” he said. “You can’t deprive an M&A lawyer from not being able to use the web, so why would you deprive their agents?”
Unlike traditional search engines that provide ranked web links for human users, Parallel’s system returns optimised “tokens” that feed directly into an AI model’s context window. The company says this approach improves accuracy, reduces false information or “hallucinations,” and lowers operational costs for customers.
Agrawal said the new funding will help Parallel accelerate product development, expand its customer base, and address growing challenges around restricted web access as publishers and platforms place content behind paywalls to limit AI scraping. He also revealed plans for an “open market mechanism,” an economic model to encourage publishers to make their content accessible to AI systems, though he did not share further details.
Founded two years ago, Parallel launched its products in August 2025 after raising $30 million in early 2024. The company’s latest funding marks a significant step in building AI-native web search infrastructure designed for the next generation of digital agents.
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