Salesforce Ventures, the CRM software juggernaut's corporate investment group, is today announcing that it has closed a $125 million fund to continue backing enterprise cloud startups across Europe.
To wit, Salesforce Ventures says it has already backed more than 50 startups active in a variety of industries, across 13 European countries, including the likes of GoCardless, Unbabel, Sigfox, Wefox and Onfido. Globally, Salesforce's venture firm has funded more than 300 enterprise cloud startups to date.
Last year, just south of €25 billion was invested in European startups, a decent chunk of which went to SaaS companies, particularly those in 'growth stage'. And Salesforce Ventures' aim is to continue scouting for the most promising enterprise software startups in the region, big or small, with a core investment team of five people working out of the UK.
Its first fund in Europe, a $100 million vehicle launched in 2015 and led by partner Alex Kayyal, is now fully invested, the firm says in a statement.
With the new vehicle - dubbed the 'Europe Trailblazer Fund' - Salesforce Ventures hopes to remain the most active corporate VC in this part of the world as it plans to invest at various stages of growth to provide startups with not just cash but also 'Salesforce exec support' and 'product alignment' as they scale up.
"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, belief in the local entrepreneurs and our focus on creating the world's largest ecosystem of enterprise cloud companies to drive customer success."
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