Nearly three weeks into the new year, and there have been no huge rounds for any AI startups.

That may be about to change, as Reuters reported Toronto-based Cohere is in discussions to raise between $500 million and $1 billion.

The news comes just about a month after it was reported another AI startup, Anthropic, was in discussions to raise $750 million in a funding round led by Menlo Ventures. 

Cohere builds large language models that allow AI to learn from new data, and can be customized and put into applications for features like interactive chat or to generate text.

The company raised a $270 million Series C led by Inovia Capital at a valuation of $2.2 billion in June. Other investors in the round include some big corporate names — Nvidia, Oracle, Salesforce Ventures 1, DTCP and SentinelOne — as well as financial institutions and VC firms Mirae Asset, Schroders Capital, Thomvest Ventures and Index Ventures. 

Starting up again?

Of course, AI was the shining beacon of light last year in a down venture market.

Generative AI and AI-related startups raised nearly $50 billion in 2023, per Crunchbase data, including eight rounds of $500 million or more and many other nine-figure deals.

While some have predicted a slowdown this year, time will tell if investors are serious about questioning some of the big raises and valuations AI startups have been receiving or if 2024 will continue along last year’s path.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman