Toronto-based AI startup Cohere has closed a $500 million funding round, boosting its valuation to $6.8 billion—a 24% jump compared to last year. The round was led by Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, with strong reinvestment from industry heavyweights AMD Ventures, Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures, PSP Investments, and a newcomer, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan.
Enterprise-First AI Focus
Unlike rivals focused on general-purpose foundation models, Cohere’s edge is in building secure large language models (LLMs) tailored for enterprise use. Its agentic AI solutions aim to boost operational efficiency, invoke stronger data security, and fulfill strict regulatory standards that consumer models often miss.
Capitalizing on the funding momentum, Cohere expanded its executive ranks:
- Joelle Pineau, former VP of AI Research at Meta, is now chief AI officer.
- Francois Chadwick, previously at Uber and Shield AI, is the new CFO.
The fresh funds will accelerate Cohere’s global expansion, support advanced multimodal AI models (as seen with its recent “Command Vision” release), and reinforce partnerships across the enterprise spectrum—including deals with Oracle, Dell, SAP, and RBC.
Key Facts
- Funding Raised: $500 million (August 2025)
- Valuation: $6.8 billion (up from $5.5 billion last year)
- Major Investors: Radical Ventures, Inovia Capital, AMD Ventures, Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures, PSP Investments, HOOPP
- Strategic Focus: Secure, sovereignty-oriented enterprise AI solutions
Cohere’s push exemplifies the growing momentum in enterprise AI, as both private equity and tech majors invest heavily in scalable, secure, and smart solutions outside the consumer AI mainstream.
