Canada’s Cohere valued at US$6.8bn in raise, hires long-time Meta AI lead
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The news: Toronto-based AI startup Cohere has raised USD500 million ($770.1 million) and appointed former executives from Meta and Uber as it positions itself as a more secure alternative to rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic.
The numbers: The funding round, led by Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, brings the Canadian start-up’s valuation to USD6.8 billion.
The round also drew support from existing investors including AMD Ventures, Nvidia, PSP Investments and Salesforce Ventures, as well as new backers like the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, the company said.
Cohere named Joelle Pineau, who spent nearly eight years at Meta and served as vice-president of AI research, as chief AI officer. It also appointed Francois Chadwick, a former Uber and Shield AI executive, as chief financial officer.
The context: Unlike most AI companies, Cohere builds enterprise-specific models, often running them on customers’ own infrastructure.
It recently signed or expanded deals with the Royal Bank of Canada, Fujitsu, LG, Oracle and Dell.
The startup launched its AI agent platform, North, in January and has doubled its annual recurring revenue to USD100mn since the start of 2025, with a target of USD200mn by the end of the year, according to The Financial Times.
The sources: Cohere media release, Joelle Pineau
