Google’s former SVP launches Neeva, an ad-free search engine, in Europe

The Neeva search engine from a former Google executive debuts in Europe.
It provides consumers with a freemium model and intends to roll out premium subscription models with more features. Last year saw the launch of the search engine in America.

In Europe, Sridhar Ramaswamy, the former SVP of Google Ads, has launched the ad-free search engine Neeva. The user-first platform was initially introduced in the US last year, and since then, it has accumulated more than 600,000 monthly users. Following a $40 million fundraising round from investors including Sequoia Capital, Greylock Ventures, and others, the search engine expanded throughout Europe.

Neeva was introduced in Europe on October 6, 2022, in order to compete with well-known search engines by providing “honest search results, no monitoring, and with absolutely no adverts or affiliate links.” It is clear that Neeva must compete with Google given that it now controls more than 90% of the market for search engines.

“The ad-supported internet has produced profoundly unbalanced incentives that have made huge technological companies and advertisers wealthy while abusing the privacy and personal data of users,” the ad-free search engine claims.