Cohere Acquires OttoGrid: AI Startup Expands Market Research Capabilities

Cohere Acquires Ottogrid to Enhance Market Research Automation

AI startup Cohere has completed the acquisition of Ottogrid, a Vancouver-based company specializing in the development of enterprise-level tools for automating advanced market research processes.

Deal Announcement and Product Sunset

Sully Omar, a co-founder of Ottogrid, publicly announced the acquisition on Friday via a post on X. The financial details of the transaction were not revealed.

According to Omar, Ottogrid’s existing product will be discontinued, however, customers will receive sufficient advance notification and a suitable timeframe for transitioning to alternative solutions.

Integration and Future Impact

“We are thrilled to become part of the Cohere team and to integrate Ottogrid’s capabilities into Cohere’s platform,” Omar stated. “This collaboration will significantly enhance the ability to automate workflows, improve data quality, and expand operational scale.”

Cohere has not yet issued an official response to requests for comment regarding the acquisition.

Cohere's Strategic Context

This purchase by Cohere occurs during a period of internal adjustments for the company. Reports from The Information indicate that Cohere did not meet its revenue projections established in early 2023, falling short of its annual target by 85%.

However, Cohere recently informed Reuters that its annualized revenue has reached $100 million. This growth is attributed to a strategic realignment focused on providing private AI deployments for sectors including healthcare, government, and finance.

Ottogrid's Evolution and Funding

Ottogrid initially launched in 2023 under the name Cognosys, founded by Omar and Homam Malkawi. The company underwent a rebranding in October 2024, accompanied by a substantial platform redesign and the introduction of new integrations, tools, and APIs.

Currently, Ottogrid provides a “native table interface” that leverages AI-driven document analysis. This allows users to extract data from websites and save it directly into spreadsheets, or to automatically enhance sales lead information.

Prior to the acquisition, Ottogrid successfully secured $2 million in venture capital funding. Investors included GV (Google Ventures), Untapped Capital, Replit CEO Amjad Masad, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, and Cohere co-founders Ivan Zhang and Aidan Gomez, as per Crunchbase data.

Focus on North and Enhanced Productivity

Following the integration with Cohere, Ottogrid’s efforts will be concentrated on North, Cohere’s newly released ChatGPT-style application. North is designed to assist knowledge workers with tasks such as document summarization.

Cohere CEO Statement

Updated 2:03 p.m. Pacific: Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez released a statement saying: “I’m super excited to bring the Ottogrid team aboard and incorporate Ottogrid’s product directly into North. We’re bringing enterprises a new way to tackle research with smart tables, helping make employees’ day-to-day work more enjoyable and productive.”

Key Features of Ottogrid

• AI-Powered Document Analysis: Enables efficient extraction of insights from various documents.
• Native Table Interface: Provides a user-friendly environment for data manipulation.
• Data Extraction: Facilitates seamless data transfer from websites to spreadsheets.
• Lead Enrichment: Automates the process of enhancing sales lead lists.