Cohere has raised $500 million in fresh funding, pushing the Toronto-based AI startup’s valuation to $6.8 billion. The company appointed former Meta VP of AI Research Joelle Pineau as Chief AI Officer—signaling its intent to compete not with consumer-facing chatbots, but with secure, enterprise-specific AI tools.
Amid a race to deploy generative AI into every business process imaginable, Cohere is staking its claim with a laser focus on agentic AI, systems designed to carry out real-world tasks reliably, securely, and at scale. The company’s latest moves mark a maturation point not just for Cohere, but for the entire enterprise AI market.
The $500 million round was led by Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, with participation from Nvidia, AMD Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, PSP Investments, and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan. Oracle, while a key Cohere partner, was not listed among the new or continuing investors.
Jordan Jacobs, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Radical Ventures, said that “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.”
“The company’s relentless focus on customers’ time to value, data privacy, and customization uniquely positions Cohere to lead the enterprise AI adoption, both at home and internationally,” said Patrick Pichette, Partner, Inovia Capital, who will be joining Cohere’s board of directors.
Key Highlights
- Cohere secured a $500 million round, bringing its valuation to $6.8 billion.
- Partners include Oracle, SAP, RBC, Fujitsu, and Dell; major investors include Radical Ventures, Inovia Capital, Nvidia, and Salesforce Ventures.
- Cohere’s AI is tailored specifically for enterprise, with a strong emphasis on data security, compliance, and sovereignty.
Targeting Enterprise, not everyone
While consumer-focused players like OpenAI and Meta dominate headlines with general-purpose chatbots, Cohere has quietly carved out a different niche—enterprise-ready large language models (LLMs) that prioritize local data control, regulatory compliance, and digital sovereignty.
“This represents a security-first category of enterprise AI that is simply not being met by repurposed consumer models,” the company said.
Cohere co-founder and CEO Aidan Gomez says, “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.”
“Cohere is becoming the world’s chosen partner for integrating AI into their critical industries,” said Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Cohere. The company is at a “pivotal moment in accelerating the delivery of secure AI that empowers enterprises worldwide.” He added that the company is entering a new phase of growth, supported by both product innovation and leadership.
Major talent moves
Bringing Joelle Pineau on board marks a significant moment for Cohere’s research ambitions. Pineau, a well-regarded academic and long-time AI lead at Meta, had most recently overseen Meta’s FAIR team. She will be based in Montreal and continue her academic post at the School of Computer Science at McGill University and as a core member of Mila, the Québec Artificial Intelligence Institute.
Also joining is Francois Chadwick, who has held senior finance roles at Uber and Shield AI. He steps in as Chief Financial Officer, bringing both operational and IPO experience. Chadwick will work out of Cohere’s San Francisco office.
Gomez said that the company is entering a new phase of expansion alongside our partners, and is “thrilled to welcome Joelle and Francois, whose experience, talent, and insight will be instrumental in continuing Cohere’s growth.”
North, new models, and global ambitions
In January, Cohere launched North, its flagship agentic AI platform designed to help knowledge workers automate tasks such as document summarization and workflow management—going beyond traditional chat-based tools. Built on a range of proprietary models, including Command A and Command A Vision (generative models), and Embed 4 and Rerank 3.5 (retrieval models), North reflects Cohere’s expanding multi-modal ambitions.
“The funding allows us to expand more globally, branch off into different modalities, as you saw us launch a command vision model recently, and keep building secure AI for the enterprise,” said co-founder Nick Frosst.
Founded in 2019 by Aidan Gomez, one of the authors of the landmark ‘Attention Is All You Need’ paper, Cohere has steadily built its reputation on security, depth, and enterprise relevance rather than consumer hype. Now, with global traction, strategic partnerships, and key hires from Meta and Uber, it’s positioning itself as a serious force in enterprise AI deployment.
