AI startup Cohere has acquired Vancouver-based Ottogrid, a platform known for building enterprise-grade tools that automate high-level market research. The news was announced on X by Ottogrid co-founder Sully Omar, who shared that while financial terms remain undisclosed, the team will now join Cohere and help build out its growing suite of enterprise AI products.
Ottogrid, which originally launched in 2023 under the name Cognosys, will shut down its standalone product. However, Omar assured customers they’ll be given ample notice and a smooth transition period. He also emphasized that this next chapter with Cohere will allow Ottogrid’s team to drive bigger impact—helping businesses scale operations and enhance data workflows with AI.
“We’re very excited to join the Cohere team and integrate Ottogrid into Cohere’s platform,” Omar said, noting their shared focus on workflow automation and data enrichment.
Strategic Exit as Cohere Shifts to Private AI for Enterprise
Cohere’s acquisition comes during a pivotal moment for the company. According to a report by The Information, Cohere missed its 2023 revenue goal by a wide margin—falling short by 85%. But more recently, the company told Reuters that its annualized revenue has climbed to $100 million, driven by its new emphasis on private AI deployments for sectors like healthcare, finance, and government.
Ottogrid fits squarely into that strategy. The startup had recently redesigned its platform under a new brand in October 2024, adding integrations and developer-friendly APIs. Its native table interface allowed users to automate tasks like extracting website data directly into spreadsheets or enriching sales leads with real-time information—precisely the kind of functionality enterprise customers look for in private AI workflows.
Prior to its acquisition, Ottogrid raised $2 million from a strong investor lineup, including GV (Google Ventures), Untapped Capital, Replit CEO Amjad Masad, and Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch. Notably, Cohere co-founders Ivan Zhang and Aidan Gomez were also early backers—suggesting this acquisition may have been in the works for some time.
As part of Cohere, the Ottogrid team will now focus on building features for North, Cohere’s recently launched ChatGPT-style assistant aimed at helping knowledge workers with tasks like document summarization, research, and decision support.
