Expanding Our Focus on Impact Investing with a New $100M Fund
I’m excited to announce that this morning Salesforce Ventures launched a new $100M Impact Fund to support innovative companies driving positive social change. In 2017, we launched our first $50M Impact Fund and today we’re expanding our commitment.
At Salesforce we’ve been committed to doing good as part of our business model since our founding. Over the last decade, Salesforce Ventures has not only invested and helped accelerate the growth of the most innovative cloud companies and founders globally, but we also lead with these same values — incorporating social responsibility, sustainability and diversity into our investment process.
There has arguably never been a more important moment for businesses to be a force for good.
We are in an unprecedented time as we face multiple intersecting crises — a health crisis, an economic crisis, a climate crisis, and a crisis of racial injustice. With this new fund, we will continue to invest in companies solving the world’s most pressing challenges and contributing towards a more resilient and inclusive economy — one that ensures the long-term wellness of citizens, drives job creation, protects against future shocks coming from climate change, and breaks down systemic barriers across race and gender.
Fueling Companies Driving Positive Social Change
As we reflect on the last few years, we are excited about the growth and impact of our portfolio companies and feel privileged to partner with them. We have invested in some of the most disruptive startups delivering solutions across education and reskilling, climate action, diversity, equity and inclusion, and enabling tech for nonprofits and foundations — including companies like Andela, Angaza, Ellevest, FutureFuel, Measurabl, pymetrics, Urbint, and Ureeka.
Some notable highlights include: Guild Education achieved a $1B valuation; Unite Us was named as the 2020 start-up to watch at the JP Morgan Health Conference; Ellevest launched a membership model to reach more customers and address the gender wealth gap; Flutterwave processed over 100 million transactions across Africa, and both AdmitHub and Samasource published compelling impact evidence from randomized control trials.
Continued Investment in Social Good
Impact investing is experiencing significant growth as businesses and investors increasingly aim to make real-world change and build a better future for all stakeholders. The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) estimates the market size at $715 billion, up more than 40 percent from last year. Based on a recent survey of nearly 300 impact investing organizations, the GIIN highlights the increasing depth and sophistication of the industry, as well as impact investors’ unique ability to tackle the world’s concurrent crises.
We are thrilled to watch the growth of the field, as a number of corporates, including influential companies like Citi and Amazon, have launched new impact funds in the last three years.
Partners in Success
Salesforce Ventures is 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.
Importantly, our close relationship with Salesforce allows us to provide our portfolio with differentiated access to one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies in the world, offering value beyond just capital, including go-to-market advice and customer introductions. Whether you’re looking for advice on pricing, customer success, product marketing, or how to hire at scale, we can expose you to the experts at Salesforce that run those domains internally.
Looking ahead
With our new $100M Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund, we are excited to back the next generation of innovative companies driving positive social change. If you think we can be helpful on your journey, please get in touch — we would love to hear from you!
Visit our website at www.salesforce.com/ventures/impact for more and remember to follow us on Twitter at @salesforceVC or LinkedIn for the latest.
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