AI Startup Cohere Lays Off Employees Despite $500M Funding Round

Cohere, an AI startup established by former Google AI researchers and supported by Nvidia, has laid off approximately 20 employees, as per media reports. 

The company, which had around 400 employees, recently completed a $500 million funding round with contributions from investors such as AMD, Salesforce, Oracle, and Nvidia. This funding more than doubled Cohere's valuation to $5.5 billion compared to last year.

Despite the layoffs, Cohere is actively recruiting for positions in customer operations, partnerships, revenue, sales, product design, and modeling, as indicated on its website.

Cohere, backed by Nvidia, focuses on providing generative AI solutions for enterprises rather than consumer chatbots, which have gained significant attention since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022. In June 2023, Cohere secured $270 million in funding, valuing the company at $2.2 billion, with Salesforce and Oracle among the investors.