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Canada takes up to C$1.6 billion of Cohere's record round, at a C$35.7 billion valuation
Cohere announced the first close of a targeting up to C$7 billion at a C$35.7 billion , which Aidan Gomez called the largest private raise in Canadian history. The Schwarz Group, Lidl's parent and Cohere's partner in its merger with Germany's Aleph Alpha, leads. The new investors are Bell Ventures, Bullhound Capital and the Government of Canada; Inovia, Nvidia and Prosperity7 return A.
Prime Minister Mark Carney put the government's stake at up to C$1.6 billion of equity, announced in Montreal on the first day of the EU-Canada summit. "It is in all our interests for Cohere to succeed, and now all Canadians will have a share in that success," he said. Cohere says annualized revenue grew 165% in the year to the end of the third quarter but gives no absolute figure, so the multiple on that valuation cannot be checked A·B.
The valuation is well above the roughly US$20 billion that Cohere was reported to be seeking in September. A government putting its own money into one company on top of a European retailer's is a different kind of backing from a venture round: the pitch is sovereignty, and the buyers are states. SourcesABB
Sources
- ACohere announces Series E fundraise targeting CAD $7 billion (PR Newswire)prnewswire.com
- BCanada and the EU: live updates (BNN Bloomberg)bnnbloomberg.ca
- BCohere closes initial Series E (Unite.AI)unite.ai
This story ran in the Afternoon Brief of October 29th 2026.