Cohere Opens a Series E Targeting CAD $7B at CAD $35.7B

Cohere announced the initial close of a Series E targeting up to CAD $7 billion, which the company said would value it at CAD $35.7 billion. The companies of Schwarz Group are leading. Bell Ventures, Bullhound Capital, and the Government of Canada are new investors. Inovia Capital, Nvidia, and Prosperity7 Ventures are coming back in. The round is not fully closed.

The numbers

• The target is up to CAD $7 billion at a CAD $35.7 billion valuation. Cohere called it the largest private financing round a Canadian technology company has undertaken.
• Schwarz Group companies are the lead. The release does not state Schwarz's cheque. Bloomberg put that commitment at $600 million, Quartz reported.
• Canada is a new equity investor. BetaKit and the Globe and Mail reported a stake of up to $1.6 billion. Bloomberg, via Quartz, reported as much as $1.14 billion.
• Cohere has not said how much of the CAD $7 billion is signed. A spokesperson told BetaKit most of the target is in. CFO Francois Chadwick told Bloomberg the first close is "most of it," and he told the Globe the round is still open.

What the company put on the wire

The October 29 release and a post by the three co-founders the same day both use Canadian dollars. Neither one prints the government's cheque, Schwarz's cheque, or the share already signed. Quartz, citing Bloomberg, reported a second set of figures in dollars rather than Canadian dollars. A full round of up to $5 billion, a $20.5 billion valuation before the new money, Schwarz at $600 million, and Canada at as much as $1.14 billion.

"Today we are announcing the initial close of our Series E, a record-setting round that marks the largest private capital raise in Canadian history."

Aidan Gomez, chief executive and co-founder of Cohere, in the October 29 release

The Globe and Mail reported that the company had secured most of the round, and that the price would be a step up from roughly US$7 billion in a round last September. Chadwick told the Globe investor demand ran ahead of the original ask, so Cohere kept the round open and expects to close soon.

Where the money goes

Chadwick said Cohere will use the funding to advance its model and product roadmap, build AI products for regulated industries, and buy the compute those models need. The release says the company will keep scaling across North America, EMEA, and APAC.

On the Canadian terms, BetaKit reported that Cohere will put $1.7 billion into new computing infrastructure in Canada by 2030, and that the money will help a company of more than 800 people add 1,000-plus tech jobs in Canada by 2030. The Globe reported the same $1.7 billion infrastructure commitment and quoted Prime Minister Mark Carney at the announcement. "Under this agreement, Cohere will stay Canadian." Quartz, citing Bloomberg, put the domestic compute spend at roughly $1.2 billion by 2030. AI minister Evan Solomon told BetaKit the federal investment runs through the Canada Development Investment Corporation, in stages, and that jobs and revenue targets are the milestones. He did not publish the stage terms.

Gomez told the Montreal announcement that the financing will make Cohere the largest AI company outside the United States, BetaKit reported. That is his claim, not a ranking in the release.

The compute contract already on the books

This round is the financing. A separate contract is the hardware. In October, Boost Run signed a five-year GPU cloud agreement with Cohere worth about $525.6 million for Nvidia GB300 NVL72 capacity, with acceptance expected to start in early Q2 2027. Ultrathink covered that filing. Cohere has not said whether Series E money pays that contract.

The company said Q3 2026 annual recurring revenue grew 165% from a year earlier, and that its customer count rose 20-fold over the past year to 300. Named customers include Aston Martin Aramco, Bell Canada, Fujitsu, RBC, RWS, PwC, TD Bank, and TKMS. Those figures are Cohere's, not a public filing. The release also points to this year's deals for Aleph Alpha, Reliant AI, and AISLE, and to North, its agent platform.

What we are watching

The CAD $35.7 billion figure is what Cohere says the full target would be worth. It is not a price on the money already wired. Canada's stake is reported, and the reports disagree. BetaKit and the Globe say up to $1.6 billion. Bloomberg, via Quartz, says as much as $1.14 billion. The release is silent. The number that settles the story is the final close, and which of those two government figures is the one Ottawa actually funds.