Toronto-based AI scaleup Cohere has secured $500 million USD ($690 million CAD) in new funding and appointed two former execs from Meta and Uber to its C-suite. Led by returning Canadian investors Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, this round saw participation from existing supporters like AMD Ventures, Nvidia, PSP Investments, and Salesforce Ventures, while the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) joined as a new investor.
This round values Cohere at $6.8 billion USD ($9.4 billion CAD), up from the $5.5 billion USD valuation during its previous $500-million USD Series D. The Financial Times first reported on this fundraising in June.
Cohere has added two new executives. Joelle Pineau, a Canadian computer scientist, has been named chief AI officer. Previously, she was Meta’s VP of AI research and led its FAIR lab. Pineau will guide research and development from Cohere’s new Montréal office, maintaining links with local AI institute Mila, where she is a core academic member.
Francois Chadwick joins as CFO, having served as Uber’s acting CFO and holding leadership during its IPO. Chadwick was a partner at KPMG and CFO at Shield AI and Volta Charging.
Cohere intends to utilize the funds to expand its enterprise AI solutions globally, building on partnerships with major corporations and the public sector. Recently, it announced a memorandum with the Canadian government and launched its workplace platform North.
*Feature image courtesy Toronto Tech Week.*