Latest news with #NorthforBanking
Calgary Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Cohere hits US$6.8-billion valuation and snags Meta's former AI head
Canada's top-funded artificial intelligence startup has secured a US$500 million fundraise that boosts Cohere Inc. 's valuation to US$6.8 billion as it tries to become a mainstay in a heavily funded and increasingly competitive race to supply businesses and governments with AI services. Article content The Toronto-headquartered company has also added a key figure to its AI personnel by hiring Meta Platforms Inc. 's former AI head Joelle Pineau as its chief AI officer. Pineau will lead the company's research and product development efforts from Montreal, where Cohere opened a new office last month – its second in Canada. Article content Article content Its latest funding round was led by Toronto-based Radical Ventures Investments Inc. and Montreal-based Inovia Capital Inc., and included participation from existing investors such as chip behemoth Nvidia Corp., AMD Ventures, the venture capital arm of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan. Article content Its valuation has shot up from US$5.5 billion since its last funding round in June 2024 and has soared 200 per cent since its June 2023 fundraising round. Article content Article content Though Cohere's size and business remain small compared to its Silicon Valley peers — the likes of OpenAI Inc. and Anthropic PBC, which are targeting valuations of US$300 billion and US$170 billion, respectively — it is hedging its bets on helping businesses and governments worldwide integrate its AI models and systems. Article content Article content For example, it teamed up in January with the Royal Bank of Canada, the country's biggest bank and most valuable company, to develop North for Banking, an AI platform for financial services. Article content More recently, Cohere has announced a slew of private- and public-sector deals, in addition to new offices in Montreal and Seoul, South Korea. Article content In early August, Cohere launched its AI agent service and is working with 'large enterprises across key markets in North America, APAC, and EMEA' to integrate the platform. Last month, the company struck an alliance with BCE Inc. to sell AI tools to Canadian organizations.
Calgary Herald
06-08-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Cohere launches AI agent platform for businesses
Toronto-headquartered artificial intelligence startup Cohere Inc. has officially launched its AI agent service for businesses. Article content The company is aiming to sell its agentic AI platform, called North, to private and public sector organizations in Canada and worldwide. Cohere is 'working with large enterprises across key markets in North America, APAC, and EMEA,' it told the Financial Post in an emailed statement. Article content Article content Cohere initially debuted North in January. The startup integrated the platform into the workflows of a select group of companies including the Royal Bank of Canada, Dell Technologies Inc. and South Korea's LG CNS Co. Ltd., an IT service firm and subsidiary of conglomerate LG Corporation. Article content Cohere and RBC for instance, jointly developed North for Banking, a generative and agentic AI workspace tailored to financial services firms. The platform lets users search for answers and solutions via a customized chatbot, and to use AI agents to automate tasks from drafting emails to summarizing reports and creating data visualizations. Article content Last week, Cohere announced a partnership with telecommunications giant BCE Inc. to sell AI tools to governments and businesses in Canada. The tie-up will allow organizations to access Cohere's AI services, including North and its large language models, through Bell Canada's AI data centres and fibre network. Article content Article content Cohere's public launch of its AI agent platform comes as the startup makes a major push to secure its position as Canada's top AI provider and as a leading global supplier of AI tools for enterprises. Article content Article content In June, the company announced a new alliance to deploy its AI tools and platforms across the Canadian and U.K. governments to 'strengthen the public sector and national security,' it said in an official release. Article content In July, Cohere said that it would open a second Canadian office in Montreal this year, which will initially hire seven staff, with the aim to triple that number within a year. In the same month, the company launched a new office in Seoul, South Korea, in an effort to shore up its regional operations and to win more Asia-based clients. Article content Cohere has over 400 staff in offices in Toronto, San Francisco, New York and London, with the majority of its workers based in Canada. Founded in 2019, the startup has raised over US$970 million from investors like chip giant Nvidia Corporation, cloud computing provider Oracle Corporation, and Quebec-based venture capital firm Inovia Capital. Article content
