Cohere has completed the first close of its Series E round, which it aims to grow to as much as C$7bn. The Toronto AI company says that would value it at C$35.7bn. The Government of Canada is among the new investors.

Cohere announced the round on Thursday in a press release and a blog post by its three co-founders. It says the round is the largest private financing ever raised by a Canadian technology company.

“The most powerful AI systems are concentrated in a very small number of companies, in a very small number of countries,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said at a press conference on Thursday.

Who is putting money in

The companies of Schwarz Group, a large European retailer, lead the Cohere Series E, having committed $600m earlier, Bloomberg reported. Bell Ventures, Bullhound Capital and the Government of Canada are new investors.…