The customer relationship management software producer launched four specialist funds with $250m of capital and scored big on the IPO exit front.

US-based enterprise software provider Salesforce had another interesting year on the corporate venturing side, allocating $250m in capital to four new funds and seeing three of its unicorn portfolio companies going public. Salesforce is the most prominent corporate venturer in the enterprise space, particularly since Germany-based SAP spun out its CVC arm into the independent firm now known as Sapphire Ventures, and despite the entry of companies like Slack and Workday into the space, it continues to outspend rivals through what remains a primarily strategic approach. The company’s corporate venturing unit, Salesforce Ventures, has traditionally been eager to put money into specialist funds and was especially active in 2017. The largest initiative was the $100m Platform Fund the unit launched in May, with the aim of boosting its parent’s ecosystem by backing companies developing products on the Salesforce platform. Platform Fund was followed by three $50m funds later in the year, beginning the same month with the SI Trailblazer Fund, formed in order to invest in cloud consulting companies looking to expand their Salesforce services. The corporate then launched the AI Innovation Fund in late September to support developers of Salesforce-compatible artificial intelligence software, and an impact investment unit called Salesforce Impact Fund a few weeks later that will provide capital to startups utilising its software for projects covering equality, sustainability, workforce development or the social sector. Salesforce Ventures does not invest at as late a stage as some of the larger corporate venturing units, but it does participate in growth rounds, the largest of which was an $89m round for I.am+, the AI voice assistant developer formed by performer Will.I.Am, taking its total funding to $117m. Other notable investments made by the unit include a $60m series F round for business planning platform Anaplan earlier this month that valued it at $1.4bn, a $55m series E round for cloud sales software provider Apttus that increased its overall funding to almost $330m, and a $52m series D round for customer data analytics software producer Gainsight. Salesforce’s investments were made alongside some notable exits, particularly in the IPO space. Integration software provider MuleSoft raised $221m when it floated in March, before data analytics software producer Alteryx went public in a $126m offering a few days later, and database platform creator MongoDB secured $192m from its October IPO. A significant and perhaps telling indication of the strength of Salesforce Ventures’ investments is that not only did all three float above their ranges,…

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