Cohere, a leading AI startup specializing in large language models, has acquired Ottogrid, a Vancouver-based platform known for its enterprise tools that automate high-level market research tasks. The acquisition aims to bolster Cohere’s offerings in automating workflows, enriching data, and scaling operations for enterprise clients.
Ottogrid, originally launched in 2023 as Cognosys by founders Sully Omar and Homam Malkawi, rebranded in October 2024 with a significant platform redesign introducing new integrations, tools, and APIs. The platform provides a native table interface with AI-powered document analysis capabilities, allowing users to extract data from websites and automatically enrich sales lead lists.
Prior to the acquisition, Ottogrid raised $2 million in venture capital from investors including GV (Google Ventures), Untapped Capital, Replit CEO Amjad Masad, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, and Cohere co-founders Ivan Zhang and Aidan Gomez.
As part of the acquisition, Ottogrid will sunset its standalone product, providing customers with ample notice and a reasonable transition period. The Ottogrid team will integrate into Cohere’s operations, focusing on enhancing North, Cohere’s recently launched ChatGPT-style application designed to assist knowledge workers with tasks such as summarizing documents.
This strategic move comes as Cohere shifts its focus toward private AI deployments for sectors like healthcare, government, and finance. Despite missing its 2023 revenue projections by 85%, the company reported an annualized revenue of $100 million following this strategic pivot.
The integration of Ottogrid’s capabilities is expected to strengthen Cohere’s position in the enterprise AI market, offering more robust tools for automating research and data analysis tasks.
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