Cohere and Aleph Alpha join forces: a transatlantic anchor for sovereign AI
Munich, Germany, September 16, 2026. Cohere and Aleph Alpha announced yesterday the signing of a definitive business combination agreement, following the planned combination announced in April. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close before the end of the year. UVC Partners co-led Aleph Alpha's Series A in 2021 and has been an investor in the company since.
UVC Partners has backed Aleph Alpha since co-leading the company's Series A in 2021.
The combined company will operate globally under the name Cohere and will employ more than 1,000 people across both continents. It is planned to be dual-headquartered in Berlin and Toronto, with Aleph Alpha's Heidelberg office retained as a research center.
The gap the combination closes
Most of today's frontier models are built in a small number of labs in the United States and China. For every other state, that leaves an uncomfortable choice: import the capability and accept the dependency, or do without it. Canada and Germany belong to a third group – technologically strong, with excellent research and demanding public-sector customers, but without a domestic lab operating at that scale.
The combination addresses exactly that gap. It brings together research capacity, public-sector customers on both continents, and sovereign infrastructure, the latter through an expanded partnership with the companies of Schwarz Group to deliver sovereign AI on STACKIT, the sovereign cloud service of Schwarz Digits. According to the companies, Cohere will become the first foundation-model developer anchored on both sides of the Atlantic to deliver AI solutions aligned with the sovereignty requirements of both Canada and Germany.
Sovereignty as a governance question
In this context, sovereignty is not a political slogan but a set of technical and contractual requirements: where the models run, who has access to the data, who decides on their further development and their shutdown. For public authorities and regulated industries, these are prerequisites rather than optional extras.
What stands out about this combination is that the requirements are answered structurally, not only technically. The companies state that the combined company will operate within the applicable legal and regulatory frameworks of both jurisdictions, including the rules governing the protection and handling of sensitive data and technology, and that its structure incorporates safeguards and oversight mechanisms reinforcing operational control, accountability and compliance across both markets. Sovereignty thereby becomes a governance question – and as such, auditable.
Leadership and locations
Ilhan Scheer, currently Co-CEO of Aleph Alpha, will become Chief Operating Officer of Cohere upon closing, leading the global operating model and organizational scaling. Samuel Weinbach, co-founder and currently Co-Chief Research Officer, will become Chief Research Officer, advancing research and technological development for the combined company. Both appointments are contingent on completion of the transaction. Heidelberg remains as a research center.
Commenting on the combination, Ilhan Scheer said the company had sharpened its focus over the past twelve months on specialized language models for governments and regulated industries, and described Cohere as a strong strategic fit that adds global reach and deployment capability to Aleph Alpha's research expertise.
The role of UVC Partners
UVC Partners co-led Aleph Alpha's Series A in 2021, together with Earlybird and Lakestar, at a time when sovereign AI was neither a political priority nor an established investment category, and when a European market for foundation models barely existed.
Andreas Unseld, General Partner at UVC Partners, said: "Frontier AI and digital sovereignty were long treated as opposites. Anyone who wanted to compete at the top had to buy American or Chinese models. For countries like Germany and Canada, that is no basis on which to digitize critical infrastructure, public administration or defense. We invested in 2021 because we did not believe that trade-off would hold. What was a contrarian thesis then is European industrial policy today."
About UVC Partners
UVC Partners backs Europe’s most ambitious B2B tech founders building new category leaders. From DeepTech to AI, the firm has invested in breakout startups including Isar Aerospace, Proxima Fusion, Q.ANT, Aleph Alpha, Tacto, Flix, and FINN. With €800 million in assets under management, UVC Partners invests up to €10 million initially across multiple stages from early to growth. Over the lifetime of the investment, €40 million per company can be deployed. Beyond capital, UVC Partners' investment team is a "tech team for tech teams" – supporting founders in building and scaling market-leading companies. Through its unique access to UnternehmerTUM – Europe's leading innovation hub – the VC offers a powerful ecosystem of entrepreneurs, key corporate decision-makers, and top-tier researchers. UVC Partners' value-creation team provides direct access to a network of 1,000+ companies – potential customers and strategic partners.
For more information, visit www.uvcpartners.com
Media Contact UVC Partners
MariaPoursaiadi
UVC Partners
maria.poursaiadi@uvcpartners.com
