LONDON, Oct. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- ENTERPRISE
EMEA -- Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the Customer Success
Platform and world's #1 CRM company, today announced that
Salesforce Ventures—the company's global corporate investment
group—has allocated $100 million to
invest in European startups to fuel cloud innovation and customer
success in the region. IDC forecasts that Europe's public cloud software market will
grow almost 12 times faster than other IT segments to reach €33.3
billion by 20191. The new $100
million commitment will provide funding and support to the
entrepreneurs driving this growth in Europe.
The global shift to the cloud has opened the door to new and
exciting social, mobile and data science technologies, and has
created unprecedented growth in cloud computing spending by
companies across Europe. Since
2009, Salesforce Ventures has been actively investing in the next
generation of enterprise cloud startups that are part of the
emerging global enterprise app economy.
Salesforce Ventures 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 innovators and executives. With Salesforce Ventures,
portfolio companies can also leverage the expertise of the
Salesforce Foundation to incorporate its 1-1-1 model of integrated
philanthropy to make giving back part of their business model. The
Salesforce Ventures portfolio includes innovative European cloud
companies such as CartoDB, CloudSense, Cloud9 IDE, NewVoiceMedia,
Qubit, Universal Avenue and YOUR SL.
Comments on the News:
- "There is so much incredible innovation happening in
Europe today and we want to
empower the next generation of enterprise cloud startups in the
region," said John Somorjai, EVP of
Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures, Salesforce. "Our
$100 million commitment strengthens
our mission to help startups grow and give back to their
communities."
- "This new commitment from Salesforce Ventures will stimulate
the next generation of enterprise technology and grow the
Salesforce ecosystem to drive even greater customer success in
Europe," said Miguel Milano, President, Salesforce EMEA.
- "CartoDB's mission is to enable anyone to map their world's
data and leverage the power of location intelligence," said
Javier de la Torre, co-founder and
CEO, CartoDB. "In addition to funding, Salesforce Ventures' global
expertise will help us more effectively bring our data
visualization tools to individual and business users around the
world."
- "Salesforce Ventures provides not only the funding, network and
introductions, but also the mentorship and framework to help
companies understand how they can give back as they grow," said
Ruben Daniels, co-founder and CEO,
Cloud9 IDE. "We are proud of our commitment to Pledge 1% and expand
diversity in the technology industry by making the community a key
stakeholder in our business."
- "Salesforce Ventures is an incredibly strong partner for
NewVoiceMedia," said Jonathan Gale,
CEO, NewVoiceMedia. "Its investment in our business, solutions,
strategy and vision has allowed us to expand our business faster,
while giving us access to the most experienced and innovative cloud
executives, ecosystem and customers to ensure we maintain our rapid
growth rate."
- "Beyond funding, Salesforce Ventures gives us unique access to
the Salesforce customer ecosystem," said Graham Cooke, founder and CEO, Qubit. "Our
partnership with Salesforce Ventures is one that is recognized and
valued by the enterprise customers we want to sell to."
- "An investment from Salesforce Ventures offers a collaborative
partnership," said Thorsten Köhler, co-founder, CEO, YOUR SL.
"Salesforce Ventures has increased our ability to stay competitive
as we grow and connect with new enterprise customers, delivering
success to the entire spectrum of business."
Connect with Salesforce Ventures
- Learn more about Salesforce Ventures:
http://www.salesforce.com/ventures
- Follow @SalesforceVC on Twitter
- Learn more about the Salesforce Foundation:
http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/
- Learn more about Pledge 1%: http://www.pledge1percent.org/
Salesforce Ventures
Salesforce Ventures—Salesforce's corporate investment
group—invests in the next generation of enterprise technology to
help companies connect with their customers in entirely new ways.
Portfolio companies receive funding as well as access to the
world's largest cloud ecosystem and the guidance of Salesforce's
innovators and executives. With Salesforce Ventures, portfolio
companies can also leverage the expertise of the Salesforce
Foundation to incorporate its 1-1-1 model of integrated
philanthropy to make giving back part of their business model.
Salesforce has invested in more than 150 enterprise cloud startups
since 2009. For more information, please visit
www.salesforce.com/ventures
1 David Bradshaw,
Research Manager, European Public Cloud Services, IDC EMEA
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SOURCE Salesforce