Salesforce Ventures

"We highly value investors who can bet on a founding team obsessed with supercharging a fledgling market within the next couple of years." After leading Argmax's seed round, CEO Atila Orhon sat down with Jason Spinell and Caroline Fiegel to discuss the company's origins, his vision for the future, and why he decided to partner with Salesforce Ventures to help Argmax build foundation models on device. Read their conversation on our blog ??

Values-driven investing isn't just good ethics — it's good business ?? Through sponsoring initiatives like the BLCK VC, AccelerateHER , VC University, and Women in Cloud, we're fostering a more diverse and inclusive technology ecosystem. Further, our Impact Fund portfolio companies facilitated $72.8M in grants and donations in 2023 alone. And leading with our values has encouraged others to lead with theirs. 170 of our portfolio companies have joined the Pledge 1% movement. “We have a shared vision that together, we can significantly impact the transparency, disclosure, and actions that companies take to accelerate the transition toward a 100% zero-carbon future.” – Kiran Bhatraju, Founder and CEO, Arcadia For more on the evolution of Salesforce Ventures, download our latest report: https://lnkd.in/eSt9tpXf

Over the past 15 years, our team has invested in many new technologies, from the emergence of the cloud in the late 2000s to agentic AI today. These major platform shifts unlock transformative opportunities that redefine entire industries and create outlier value. We believe AI is the next platform shift, which is why we’ve committed $1B to AI companies developing responsible AI solutions. Platform shifts like agentic AI embody the potential we seek in our investments to revolutionize businesses and empower customers in ways that create a better tomorrow. “Of the large tech companies, we saw Salesforce and Salesforce Ventures moving faster than all the others. From Marc [Benioff] all the way down, it was clear their team saw AI coming and shifted their focus more quickly than others, and that impressed us.” – Neerav Kingsland, Head of Business Development, Anthropic For more on our journey over the last 15 years, download our latest report:? https://lnkd.in/eSt9tpXf

?? On Tuesday night, we took a moment to celebrate our 15 year anniversary with our portfolio founders and members of the media who've helped write the story of Salesforce Ventures through the years. Thank you to all who attended: Astronomer, Altana, Sixfold, Writer, Runway, ElevenLabs, Axios, CNBC, Fortune, Forbes, Reuters, TechCrunch, The Information, VentureBeat, and The Wall Street Journal. We look forward to writing our next chapter alongside all of you. For more on the past, present, and future of Salesforce Ventures,?read Paul Drews' reflections on our blog: https://lnkd.in/ggt2yaAm

Back in 2009, during the depths of the financial crisis, startups were trying to navigate one of the most challenging economic environments we had seen. It was during that time that Marc Benioff and John Somorjai saw a unique opportunity - to launch new type of venture capital fund that could invest in the most innovative entrepreneurs in the software ecosystem, help them succeed, and drive returns. That was their goal when they launched Salesforce Ventures in 2009, and it continues to be our goal today. Over the years, our team has been fortunate to invest more than $6bn behind truly groundbreaking companies - like Zoom, Docusign, Stripe, Wiz and Anthropic, and have committed $1bn to the next frontier of agentic AI. In honor of our 15 year anniversary, we’ve written some reflections on the Salesforce Ventures journey to date, as well as our vision for the future. To our founders and team - thank you for your dedication and partnership. If the next 15 years are anything like that last 15, there will be plenty of extraordinary things to come. https://lnkd.in/g-W4ufFM

Venture capital has evolved from a niche, relationship-driven cottage industry to a multi-hundred-billion-dollar asset class. But many parts of the ecosystem haven't kept pace with the needs of today’s founders. The firms that will thrive over the next 15 years are those that actively redefine the role of a VC — bringing not just individual expertise but the full power of their team and network to help founders succeed through every market cycle. Salesforce Ventures embodies this shift, blending the singular focus of traditional VC with the stability, resources, and value-add from the pioneer in cloud computing. “Salesforce Ventures brings the best of both worlds for us. They offer the financial rigor and alignment with the founding team you'd expect from a traditional VC, but also the practical enterprise approach you get from a corporate investor.” – Clem Delangue ??, Co-Founder and CEO, Hugging Face For more on our journey over the last 15 years, download our new report:?

15 years ago, we saw numerous remarkable enterprise SaaS companies struggling to raise capital during the financial crisis. So we created Salesforce Ventures to invest in them and support our ecosystem of partners that do so much to drive customer success. From these origins, we could never have imagined the impact Salesforce Ventures has been fortunate enough to have on the enterprise ecosystem. The numbers tell an extraordinary story: → $6B+ invested in groundbreaking enterprise SaaS companies → 630+ visionary companies backed across 32 countries → 35 IPOs and 175 exits, including industry leaders like Zoom, Docusign, Box, Stripe, and Wiz → $1B committed to the next frontier: responsible AI development. We’ve grown from writing small checks to big ones, from participating in rounds to leading them, from keeping pace with the market to helping create it, and from the cloud computing revolution to today’s agentic AI era. I’m proud of the foundation we’ve built by serving enterprising founders with the patient capital, coveted community, and unparalleled access they need to build industry-defining companies. In honor of this milestone, we're sharing some thoughts on our journey to date, and what we have in store for the future. Thank you to Marc Benioff, my team, our partners, and most importantly, our founders, for making all of this possible! https://lnkd.in/gfqNJaRT

15 years. 630+ enterprise software businesses. $6B+ invested. 32 countries. 39 team members, 4 global offices. And we're just getting started ?? Today marks the 15-year anniversary of the founding of Salesforce Ventures. We’ve grown from writing small checks to big ones. From participating in rounds to leading them. From keeping pace with the market to helping create it. And from the cloud computing revolution straight through the agentic AI age. We're proud of the foundation we’ve built by serving enterprising founders with the patient capital, coveted community, and unparalleled access they need to build industry-defining companies. And we’re excited to continue redefining the VC landscape by playing the long game alongside the next generation of enterprising founders. Thank you to all the innovators who've trusted us to be part of your journey ?? On our blog, Paul Drews shares his reflections on what this milestone means to us.

Today we hosted our Founder Summit in New York City ?? The event featured networking amongst Salesforce Ventures founders and partners, panel conversations with leaders from across the startup and enterprise ecosystem, and a ton of learnings ?? Arielle Fidel, Ryan Carlson, and Sarah Walker discussed the modern GTM motion, and offered advice for startups selling to enterprises. Next, Brian Landsman, Zakie Twainy, and Adam Schink discussed ways startups and enterprises can partner for mutual success. Finally, our very own Laura Rowson led a conversation with Alex Schmelkin and Joe Teplow around bringing AI to market, and methods for selling innovative new AI tools. It was a memorable morning and afternoon with an inspiring group of people. Thank you to all of our founders who attended ??

Announcing our investment in PointFive ?? PointFive is maximizing cloud cost efficiency through its DeepWaste? Detection Engine, which reveals hidden cloud waste across your entire infrastructure with the help of advanced AI models. We're excited to support PointFive alongside our friends at Index Ventures, Entrée Capital, Sheva, and Vesey Ventures as they work to transform cloud operations management. Congratulations Alon Arvatz, Gal Ben David ???????, and Amir Hozez ??