What’s new in the land of start-ups? Well Salesforce.com just announced Salesforce Ventures which has allocated $100 million to invest in companies building innovative mobile apps and connected products that extend the power of the Salesforce1 Platform. The first wave of Salesforce1 Fund investments include DocuSign, i.am+, InsideSales.com and Skuid. The idea is that with Salesforce Ventures, portfolio companies can leverage the expertise of the Salesforce.com Foundation to make giving back part of their business model from the beginning.
Salesforce Ventures invests in the next generation of enterprise technology to help companies connect with their customers in entirely new ways. Portfolio companies receive funding to accelerate their growth and gain a competitive edge through access to the world’s largest cloud ecosystem and the guidance of salesforce.com’s innovators and executives. With Salesforce Ventures, portfolio companies can also leverage the expertise of the Salesforce.com Foundation to incorporate its 1-1-1 model of integrated philanthropy to make giving back part of their business model.
It makes sense since technology continues to transform the way companies connect with their customers. By 2020, according to Cisco, there will be 50 billion connected things and a trillion connected sensors on the Internet of Things—from smartphones and wearable smart devices to jet engines and cars. But what matters most is that behind every device, every app, and every product is a customer. This is really the Internet of Customers, and the opportunity for companies to revolutionize how they connect with their customers has never been greater.
More on the companies they are funding:
● DocuSign—DocuSign’s Digital Transaction Management (DTM) platform empowers mobile Salesforce users and their customers to go 100 percent digital so that anyone can transact anything, anytime, anywhere, on any mobile device securely – all from within Salesforce1.
● i.am+—i.am+ is a fashion and technology brand that makes aspirational garments and accessories with functionality and untethered communications.
● InsideSales.com—InsideS
● Skuid—Skuid allows customers to quickly create powerful, gorgeous apps for any device without code.
The Salesforce Ventures portfolio includes innovative cloud companies such as Anaplan, Box, DocuSign, Dropbox, Evernote, FinancialForce, GainSight, Kenandy, Layer, MuleSoft and StayClassy. Salesforce.com has invested in more than 100 enterprise cloud startups since 2009. Looks like Salesforce Ventures is furthering salesforce.com’s commitment to creating the world’s most innovative cloud ecosystem that extends the power of the Salesforce1 Platform to help companies connect with their customers in entirely new ways.
If you want additional information on this new venture, you can find it here:
● Learn more about Salesforce Ventures: http://www.
● Follow @salesforcevc on Twitter: http://twitter.com/
● Learn more about the Salesforce.com Foundation: http://www.
And if you want to start giving back, join Salesforce Ventures and The Salesforce Foundation at Disrupt SF on Tuesday, September 9 to assemble backpacks for SFUSD students.
@drnatalie
VP and Principle Analyst, Constellation Research
See you at Constellation’s 4th Annual Connected Enterprise
The Executive Innovation Conference | October 29th-31st
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