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Salesforce Ventures Launches Second $100M Impact Fund

This article is more than 3 years old.

Salesforce has today announced its $100M of second Impact Fund from Salesforce Ventures, the company’s global strategic investment arm. The first fund was launched in 2017, with a $50 million and now doubling its initial investment to accelerate the growth of cloud companies.

“Now more than ever, we believe business can be a powerful platform for change. We must leverage technology and invest in innovative ideas to drive the long-term health and wellness of all citizens, enable equal access to education, and fuel impactful climate action,” said Suzanne DiBianca, Chief Impact Officer and EVP of Corporate Relations at Salesforce. “Through this new fund, Salesforce will invest in companies solving the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.”

To date, Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 400 companies from the regions of the US, EMEA, APAC to help accelerate their impact around the world. “Since its founding, Salesforce has believed that business can be a powerful platform for change. This principle is, therefore, part of our company DNA. In addition to our mission and values, we are the only strategic investor that is exclusively focused on backing enterprise cloud startups. With more than 400 investments globally, we have unique insight on how to build a successful SaaS business,” says Claudine Emeott, director of Impact Investing, said in a Q&A on the company website

Emeott’s goal is to have a portfolio of cloud startups by next year, addressing the set of social needs the firm has laid out. “I hope that [by next year] we have made numerous investments in companies that are addressing today’s concurrent crises, and I hope that we can point to their measurable impact on those crises. I hope that we can point to exciting new integrations between our portfolio companies and Salesforce to tackle these challenges together,” Emeott said.

As the fund has invested in disruptive startups delivering solutions across education and reskilling, climate action, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and enabling tech for nonprofits and foundations, the new fund will accelerate this amount for sure.

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