AI startup Cohere tops revenue target as momentum builds to IPO
Aidan Gomez, chief executive officer of Cohere Inc., at the Bloomberg Tech summit in London, UK, on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Artificial intelligence startup Cohere has told investors that it’s seeing momentum with enterprise customers, even as rivals like Google, Anthropic and OpenAI claw for market share.
Cohere hit roughly $240 million in annual recurring revenue last year, surpassing its $200 million target, according to a February investor memo viewed by CNBC. It saw quarter-over-quarter growth of more than 50% throughout 2025, the memo said.
“Our thesis is clearly resonating in the market,” the company wrote. “Our sales pipeline continues to grow as global organizations across regulated sectors choose Cohere as their trusted partner for secure AI adoption at scale.”
Founded in Toronto in 2019, Cohere develops models and builds software tools for businesses. The company is backed by investors including Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures, and its valuation has swelled to roughly $7 billion.
Cohere’s investor memo comes after CEO Aidan Gomez said in October that the startup hopes to make its public market debut “soon.” He told Bloomberg that he thinks investors would welcome a “pure play AI investment opportunity.”
But Cohere’s competitors OpenAI and Anthropic are also weighing potential IPOs, according to people familiar with the companies’ thinking. And they have not been shy about their ambitions to win in the enterprise market.
OpenAI said in November that more than 1 million businesses around the world are using the company’s technology, and Anthropic said in September that it serves more than 300,000 businesses. Those sizable customer bases present real challenges for other startups that are looking to keep up.
Cohere told investors that its “capital-efficient model” sets it apart from its rivals in the industry.
The company primarily generates revenue from software, and it said it can avoid hefty infrastructure costs because customers can run its models through managed cloud services or on their own hardware directly. This approach allows Cohere to invest “more aggressively” in customer acquisition and research and development, according to its investor memo.
Cohere’s gross margins averaged around 70% in 2025, expanding by 25 basis points year-over-year, the memo said.
“By scaling compute resources proportionally to customer demand, we remain insulated from the speculative excesses surrounding the broader AI market, positioning Cohere for more sustainable growth,” Cohere wrote.
In 2026, Cohere said it will continue to expand in Europe and build out its AI agent platform, North. The company told investors that it anticipates another year of “rapid growth.”
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