Salesforce Ventures Launches $125M Fund for European, Israeli Startups
Ami Rojkes Dombe
| 23/05/2019
Credit: Salesforce
Salesforce Ventures, the venture capital arm of the CRM giant, announced a $125 million fund to invest in enterprise cloud startups in Europe and Israel.
"Europe is a clear leader in cloud technology today, and we are excited to deepen our investment in the region," said John Somorjai, EVP of Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures. "Our commitment to European startups reflects the growth of innovation, our belief in the local entrepreneurs and our focus on creating the world's largest ecosystem of enterprise cloud companies to drive customer success."
There was €28 billion invested in European and Israeli startups last year, representing over a three times growth compared to the level in 2013. Of the overall funding, SaaS companies received more than 35 percent. The global shift to the cloud has created new, cutting-edge technology that has fueled customer success across industries. IDC forecasts that the EMEA public cloud services market will more than double between 2018 and 2023, surpassing $105.3 billion in 20233.
"We see tremendous opportunity to invest in companies across Europe as this market continues to grow at scale," said Miguel Milano, President, International at Salesforce. "At Salesforce, we focus on backing ambitious entrepreneurs who are building the most innovative solutions to support our customers' digital transformation."
With this new fund, Salesforce Ventures will continue to invest in companies at various stages of growth to provide Salesforce executive support, product alignment and financing as they scale. Investments to date include innovative enterprise companies in various industries, including retail, financial services, CPG and public sector.
Investments to date include: Bringg, Forter and TechSee in Israel; GoCardless, Privatar and Onfido in the UK; FinalCAD, Akeneo and Sigfox in France; Wefox, Contentful and Empaua in Germany; and 4C, Unbabel and Carto in the rest of Europe.
"Salesforce Ventures has been an invaluable partner, opening countless doors for us and acting as an advocate for our delivery orchestration platform and the customer experience we provide," said Guy Bloch, CEO of Bringg. "But beyond our shared vision, Salesforce Ventures is also a committed partner with the expertise and the experience to work with companies that need to quickly scale and expand their operations. Having Salesforce Ventures as a partner has been a real x-factor in our own growth, and we welcome their increasing commitment to provide investment and support to European tech companies."
In 2015, Salesforce Ventures introduced its first $100 million investment commitment in Europe and brought on Alex Kayyal as partner and head of Europe to lead the fund. Since then, Salesforce Ventures has fully deployed this initial fund and backed more than 50 startups in 13 countries in Europe.
Credit: Salesforce
Salesforce Ventures, the venture capital arm of the CRM giant, announced a $125 million fund to invest in enterprise cloud startups in Europe and Israel.
"Europe is a clear leader in cloud technology today, and we are excited to deepen our investment in the region," said John Somorjai, EVP of Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures. "Our commitment to European startups reflects the growth of innovation, our belief in the local entrepreneurs and our focus on creating the world's largest ecosystem of enterprise cloud companies to drive customer success."
There was €28 billion invested in European and Israeli startups last year, representing over a three times growth compared to the level in 2013. Of the overall funding, SaaS companies received more than 35 percent. The global shift to the cloud has created new, cutting-edge technology that has fueled customer success across industries. IDC forecasts that the EMEA public cloud services market will more than double between 2018 and 2023, surpassing $105.3 billion in 20233.
"We see tremendous opportunity to invest in companies across Europe as this market continues to grow at scale," said Miguel Milano, President, International at Salesforce. "At Salesforce, we focus on backing ambitious entrepreneurs who are building the most innovative solutions to support our customers' digital transformation."
With this new fund, Salesforce Ventures will continue to invest in companies at various stages of growth to provide Salesforce executive support, product alignment and financing as they scale. Investments to date include innovative enterprise companies in various industries, including retail, financial services, CPG and public sector.
Investments to date include: Bringg, Forter and TechSee in Israel; GoCardless, Privatar and Onfido in the UK; FinalCAD, Akeneo and Sigfox in France; Wefox, Contentful and Empaua in Germany; and 4C, Unbabel and Carto in the rest of Europe.
"Salesforce Ventures has been an invaluable partner, opening countless doors for us and acting as an advocate for our delivery orchestration platform and the customer experience we provide," said Guy Bloch, CEO of Bringg. "But beyond our shared vision, Salesforce Ventures is also a committed partner with the expertise and the experience to work with companies that need to quickly scale and expand their operations. Having Salesforce Ventures as a partner has been a real x-factor in our own growth, and we welcome their increasing commitment to provide investment and support to European tech companies."
In 2015, Salesforce Ventures introduced its first $100 million investment commitment in Europe and brought on Alex Kayyal as partner and head of Europe to lead the fund. Since then, Salesforce Ventures has fully deployed this initial fund and backed more than 50 startups in 13 countries in Europe.
