Cohere, a Toronto-based AI scaleup building large language models for enterprise and government use, has secured $500 million USD in new funding at a $6.8 billion USD valuation.
The round was co-led by returning Canadian backers Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, with participation from existing investors AMD Ventures, Nvidia, PSP Investments, and Salesforce Ventures, alongside new investor HOOPP.
The financing follows last year’s $500M Series D at a $5.5B valuation and cements Cohere’s position as one of Canada’s most valuable private tech companies.
Big Tech talent joins leadership
Cohere has appointed Joelle Pineau, former VP of AI Research at Meta and leader of its FAIR lab, as Chief AI Officer. Based in Montréal, Pineau will oversee research and product development and deepen ties with local AI institute Mila.
Francois Chadwick, who served as Uber’s acting CFO during its IPO, joins as CFO after senior roles at KPMG, Shield AI, and Volta Charging.
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Scaling secure enterprise AI
Founded in 2019 by ex-Google researchers, Cohere focuses on secure, business-ready AI rather than artificial general intelligence. Its North platform lets enterprises build custom AI agents with on-premise deployment for security-sensitive clients. Current customers include LG CNS, Dell Technologies, RBC, and Bell.
Cohere recently crossed $100M USD in annualized revenue and expects to exceed $200M by year-end, though growth trails US rivals OpenAI and Anthropic.
The new capital will accelerate global go-to-market expansion and deepen adoption in both the private and public sectors, supported by recent agreements with the Canadian government and Fortune 500 partners.
