Cohere

Cohere builds AI models and applications for enterprises and governments that need control over their data and infrastructure. Its North platform connects AI agents to organizational data and workflows, running in a customer’s own cloud, data center or air-gapped environment. North is model-agnostic: organizations can use Cohere models alongside models from other providers. This separates the choice of model from the systems that manage institutional information and work.

Founded in 2019 by Aidan Gomez, Nick Frosst and Ivan Zhang, former University of Toronto students, Cohere develops technology for institutions handling sensitive information. A July 2026 partnership with the university illustrates North’s role: it will serve as an orchestration layer within a forthcoming university-wide AI platform, helping users manage complex tasks and access trusted information across university systems. The planned uses span teaching, research, student services and administration.

Cohere’s expansion into specialized industries includes its May 2026 acquisition of Reliant AI. Reliant’s biomedical datasets and research workbench—which automates literature reviews and extracts scientific and regulatory information—support development of North for Pharma. In September 2026, Cohere signed a business combination agreement with Aleph Alpha, subject to regulatory approval. Its separately proposed acquisition of AISLE remained planned in October, intended to add systems that discover, validate and help fix software vulnerabilities through Cohere Cyber.