Cohere secures $500m in oversubscribed funding round

• Funding round led by Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, and saw enthusiastic participation from existing investors like AMD Ventures, NVIDIA, PSP Investments, Salesforce Ventures and Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan.

Cohere, the Canadian artificial intelligence startup, has successfully closed an oversubscribed funding round, raising a remarkable $500 million and pushing its valuation to $6.8 billion.

The round was led by Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, and saw enthusiastic participation from existing investors like AMD Ventures, NVIDIA, PSP Investments, and Salesforce Ventures.

Notably, new backers such as the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) also joined the roster, signaling strong confidence in Cohere’s trajectory.

With these fresh funds, Cohere is set to accelerate its efforts in agentic AI—paving the way for smarter, more autonomous AI systems that can transform enterprise operations.

A competitive edge

The strategic direction comes on the heels of several high-profile collaborations with industry leaders including Oracle, Dell, Bell, Fujitsu, and SAP.

Founded in 2019, Cohere has quickly carved out its place in the competitive AI landscape, offering language models and AI tools that automate complex tasks across a variety of sectors.

The company stands shoulder to shoulder with US AI giants like OpenAI and Google, constantly striving to deliver secure, high-performing language technologies that give clients a competitive edge.

Adding more fuel to its momentum, Cohere has bolstered its leadership team with two major hires. Joelle Pineau, previously vice-president for AI research at Meta and a renowned professor at McGill University, steps in as Cohere’s first chief AI officer.

Pineau brings extensive experience from her tenure as lead of Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team, positioning Cohere for more cutting-edge innovation.

Joining her is Francois Chadwick, Cohere’s newly appointed chief financial officer. With a background that spans executive roles at Uber and a partnership at KPMG US, Chadwick will spearhead finance and business operations as the company gears up for rapid expansion and global reach.

Solidifying its position

Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Cohere, shared his enthusiasm: “Cohere is becoming the world’s chosen partner for integrating AI into their critical industries. We are at a pivotal moment in accelerating the delivery of secure AI that empowers enterprises worldwide, and we’re excited to enter this new phase of expansion alongside our partners.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Joelle and Francois, whose experience, talent and insight will be instrumental in continuing Cohere’s growth.”

Echoing this optimism, Jordan Jacobs, co-founder and managing partner at Radical Ventures, emphasised Cohere’s unique approach: “Cohere is fulfilling that promise by building privacy-first, cloud-agnostic models and agentic AI applications that are driving extraordinary productivity gains and ROI to blue-chip enterprises, businesses and governments worldwide. We are co-leading this investment round because this is just the beginning for Cohere.”

With fresh capital, a reinforced leadership team, and an ambitious outlook, Cohere is poised to solidify its position as a key player in the evolving world of enterprise AI.