Startup Trends: 3 high-tech companies land strong funding rounds
During a period of just seven days, three high-tech companies achieved some of their highest funding rounds to date. These companies, listed on Forge, span AI and clean energy, and all achieved capital influxes north of $450 million.
Cohere, scaling AI solutions
Toronto-based Cohere is an AI technology company that offers natural language processing (NLP) models to organizations and developers. The company aims to help businesses harness the power of AI and integrate the technology into their products.
On August 14, the private company announced a nearly $500 million fundraise at a post-money valuation of $6.8 billion. According to the company, the fresh capital will help Cohere expand into global markets and build the next generation of AI solutions.1
This latest announcement comes after Cohere projected it could achieve $200 million in revenue by the end of the year.2 It was also reported that the startup hired Joelle Pineau as its chief AI officer. Pineau served previously as Meta’s VP of AI research, signaling the company’s aim to further innovate its enterprise product offerings.3
This latest funding round puts Cohere’s valuation at 9% higher than that of its last Series D funding round in July of 2024, which placed its valuation at $5.5 billion.4 The firm’s notable investors include Cisco Investments, Oracle, Salesforce Ventures and Nvidia.
Cognition, AI-enabled engineering services
San Francisco-based Cognition is a developer of an AI chatbot that assists with engineering tasks that can typically require thousands of decisions, all within a compressed timeframe. The firm states it helps businesses build and deploy end-to-end apps, find and fix bugs, and train internal AI models.
On August 14, it was reported that Cognition raised $500 million in funding at a post-money valuation of $9.8 billion.5 The news comes just weeks after it announced its acquisition of AI technology firm Windsurf.6
Founded in 2023, the early-stage startup shook up the tech world last year when it unveiled its AI coding engineer named “Devin,” a tool that can carry out engineering tasks autonomously.7
Cognition’s latest funding round is well above its last Series B and B-1 fundraise of $320 million closed in March of 2025. Cognition’s price per share at the time was $23.10. The firm’s notable investors include 8vc and Founders Fund.
Group14 Technologies, a battery technology firm
Woodinville, Washington-based Group14 Technologies manufactures silicon-carbon technology intended for lithium-silicon batteries. Group14’s technology for silicon batteries seeks to elevate the performance for all its applications and accelerate the global transition to all-electric vehicles.
On August 20, the private company announced it had closed $463 million as part of its Series D funding round.8
Rick Luebbe, CEO and Co-Founder of Group14, commented about the fundraise, “This is a defining moment for Group14 and a clear signal that the future of high-performance energy storage, powered by our silicon battery material, is already here.”
According to the announcement, Group14’s materials are already included in millions of smartphones worldwide.
Group14’s latest price per share was $30 as of this latest funding round. Founded in 2015, Group14’s notable investors include Porsche AG, OMERS Capital Markets, SK materials and OVP Venture Partners.
$9.8B
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$5.08B
