# Cohere moves to buy cybersecurity startup Aisle and launch Cohere Cyber

> The Toronto AI company signed a letter of intent for Aisle, founded by ex-Avast CEO Ondrej Vlcek, to sell security tools to governments and businesses.

- Published: 2026-10-15T14:00:00.000Z
- By: The Circuit Staff
- Type: News
- Topics: AI, Security
- URL: https://thecircuit.ca/posts/2026-10-15-cohere-to-acquire-aisle/

Cohere has signed a letter of intent to acquire **Aisle**, a startup that uses AI to find and fix software vulnerabilities, [The Logic reports](https://thelogic.co/news/cohere-deal-acquire-aisle-cybersecurity/). Financial terms weren't disclosed. The deal comes with a new business unit, **Cohere Cyber**, which will sell security tools to government and business customers.

Aisle was founded in 2025 by Ondrej Vlcek, former CEO of Czech antivirus maker Avast, with Stanislav Fort and Jaya Baloo. It has offices in San Francisco and Prague, and its Prague headquarters would become a Cohere office. Under the plan:

- **Vlcek** becomes senior vice-president of Cohere Cyber.
- **Baloo** becomes Cohere's global chief information security officer.
- **Fort**, formerly of Anthropic and Google DeepMind, leads AI security research with CTO Ivan Zhang.

Cohere says the deal strengthens security for customers running AI on their own infrastructure, including air-gapped systems. It's Cohere's third deal in recent months, after Reliant AI in May and its September agreement to combine with Germany's Aleph Alpha.

**Why it matters:** Cohere is positioning itself as the AI provider for governments and regulated industries, where security matters more than benchmark scores. Buying a team that finds software flaws with AI is a direct bet on that market, and on catching up with rivals in cybersecurity.