Salesforce.com Announces New Salesforce1 Fund from Salesforce Ventures to Fuel Mobile Innovation for the Internet of Customers

With its first dedicated fund, Salesforce Ventures allocates $100 million to invest in companies building innovative mobile apps and connected products that extend the power of the Salesforce1 Platform

First wave of Salesforce1 Fund investments include DocuSign, i.am+, InsideSales.com and Skuid

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


San Francisco—TechCrunch Disrupt SF—Sept. 8, 2014—Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the world’s #1 CRM platform, today announced that Salesforce Ventures—the company’s global corporate investment group—has launched the new Salesforce1 Fund to fuel mobile innovation for the Internet of Customers. With its first dedicated fund, Salesforce Ventures 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.

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.

Comments on the News

“The Salesforce1 Fund will empower the most innovative startups in the industry to develop transformative technologies for salesforce.com’s customer platform,” said John Somorjai, EVP of Corporate Development and Strategy, salesforce.com. “Our commitment to helping the next generation of startups grow and give back to their communities has never been stronger.”

“We want to change the world through inspiring early-stage corporate philanthropy,” said Suzanne DiBianca, president, Salesforce.com Foundation. "We’re thrilled to work with Salesforce Ventures to extend the 1-1-1 model and foster an ecosystem of portfolio companies who are committed to giving back as they grow."

“Salesforce Ventures gives us more than just funding—we’ve got an inside track to the Salesforce ecosystem,” said Keith Krach, CEO, DocuSign. “Partnering with salesforce.com early on gave us the ability to bring the global standard for Digital Transaction Management to more enterprise customers around the globe to help them keep their business 100 percent digital.”

“Our values of service, mentoring, and giving back are embedded in the core foundation of our company,” said Kraig Swensrud, founder and CEO, GetFeedback.com. “The Salesforce.com Foundation’s 1-1-1- model gave us the framework to create a philanthropic focus within our business to give back to the community.”

“The Salesforce1 Platform offers us a quick and easy way to seamlessly integrate our app into the Salesforce mobile experience,” said Dave Elkington, CEO and co-founder, InsideSales.com. “Customers have been clamoring for our solution and Salesforce Ventures’ funding and support will turbocharge our success.”

“An investment from Salesforce Ventures is much more than money, it’s about a partnership first and foremost,” said Scot Chisholm, CEO and co-founder, StayClassy. “It’s pretty incredible to have Salesforce Ventures believe in what we’re doing and stand by us as a partner and investor, as we advance philanthropy with the next generation of online fundraising.”

“Salesforce.com comes with an operational perspective and a level of access and credibility that is different from what any single venture firm can provide,” said Byron Deeter, partner, Bessemer Venture Partners. “We look forward to partnering with Salesforce Ventures to identify new opportunities to invest in the future of cloud, social and mobile technology.”

New Salesforce1 Fund Fuels Mobile Innovation for the Internet of Customers
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.

Salesforce Ventures is launching the Salesforce1 Fund to fuel mobile innovation for the Internet of Customers. The Salesforce1 Fund is the first dedicated fund from Salesforce Ventures, and will provide funding and support to entrepreneurs who extend the power of the Salesforce1 Platform to build next generation mobile apps and connected products.

The Salesforce1 Fund is launching with an allocation of $100 million in capital from Salesforce Ventures. The first wave of Salesforce1 Fund investments include:
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—InsideSales.com integrates core telephony features like Click-to-Call™ and Lead Management—powered by a predictive analytics engine—into any Salesforce1 mobile experience to make field reps more productive and accelerate sales.
Skuid—Skuid allows customers to quickly create powerful, gorgeous apps for any device without code.

Portfolio Companies Leverage Salesforce.com Foundation’s Integrated Philanthropy Model
Salesforce Ventures is committed to working with portfolio companies to make giving back part of their business model from the start. Companies receive access to the expertise of the Salesforce.com Foundation to help them adopt salesforce.com’s integrated philanthropic 1-1-1 model, leveraging one percent of the company’s product, equity and time for social good. The 1-1-1 model has been adopted by Salesforce Ventures portfolio companies including Appirio, Box, FinancialForce, GetFeedback.com, NewVoiceMedia and more.

Salesforce Ventures
Salesforce Ventures invests in the next generation of enterprise technology. 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. 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.

Salesforce Ventures furthers 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.

Additional Information
Learn more about Salesforce Ventures: http://www.salesforce.com/ventures
Follow @salesforcevc on Twitter: http://twitter.com/salesforcevc
Learn more about the Salesforce.com Foundation: http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/
Join Salesforce Ventures and The Salesforce Foundation at Disrupt SF on Tuesday, September 9 to assemble backpacks for SFUSD students

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