A national government just became a lead-check writer for a foundation model lab.
Toronto’s Cohere has completed the initial close of a Series E round it wants to grow to as much as C$7B, a raise the company says would value it at C$35.7B, and it calls this the largest private financing ever assembled by a Canadian technology company.
Germany’s Schwarz Group leads, having committed roughly $600M earlier. Three earlier backers kept their seats in this round, among them Inovia Capital, Nvidia and Prosperity7 Ventures. Fresh to the register are Bell Ventures and Bullhound Capital, plus Ottawa itself.
Conditions come with the capital
The Canadian government has agreed to put in up to C$1.14B. In return Cohere says it will keep its headquarters in the country and spend about C$1.2B on Canadian computing infrastructure by 2030. Prime Minister Mark Carney framed the money as a counterweight to the concentration of frontier AI in a handful of companies and countries.
Not every number lines up cleanly. Bloomberg reported a valuation of $20.5B excluding new money and a full round nearer $5B, suggesting currency and post-money conventions are doing real work across the coverage. Chadwick told Bloomberg the initial close includes most of the target, though the exact committed share stayed undisclosed.
Growth numbers carry the pitch
Annual recurring revenue ran up more than 165% in the 12 months to the end of September, according to the company, and the customer roster expanded twentyfold to reach 300, among them Bell Canada, Fujitsu, RBC, TD Bank, PwC and TKMS. Cohere plans to hire more than 1,000 people and expects to spend on compute for frontier training, along with new models and tools for regulated industries.
Sovereign AI has a price, and Cohere just published it.
