Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, announced the Salesforce Impact Fund from Salesforce Ventures, the company’s corporate investment group. The new $50 million fund will accelerate the growth of companies using Salesforce technology to address challenges across workforce development, equality, sustainability and the social sector. The first funding recipients include Angaza, Ellevest, Hustle and ViridisLearning.

Comments on the News:

• “With the new Salesforce Impact Fund, Salesforce Ventures is investing in companies that are not only creating innovative solutions for customers, but also improving the state of the world,” said John Somorjai, EVP of Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures, Salesforce. “We’re proud to broaden our focus on impact investing as part of our portfolio.”
• “At Salesforce, we’ve been committed to doing good as part of our business model since our founding and pioneering of the 1-1-1 model,” said Suzanne DiBianca, EVP Corporate Relations and Chief Philanthropy Officer, Salesforce. “The Salesforce Impact Fund allows us to support a new generation of startups that are focused on driving positive social change.”
• “Ellevest is committed to unleashing women’s financial power and ending the gender gap in investing and personal finance,” said Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and co-founder, Ellevest. “We’re excited to receive an investment from the new Salesforce Impact Fund, given equality is one of Salesforce’s core values, and partner with them as we grow.”
• “The launch of Salesforce’s $50 million impact investing fund is yet another data point of the growing momentum of the field. With expertise in both venture capital and a fundamental commitment to impact, Salesforce is extremely well-positioned to achieve both financial returns and social impact at scale,” said Matt Bannick, managing partner, Omidyar Network. “We applaud Salesforce in launching this fund and look forward to continuing to provide support to and co-invest with the team.”

Salesforce Impact Fund to Fuel Companies Driving Positive Change on the Salesforce Platform
Salesforce believes that businesses can be powerful platforms for change and is committed to serving the interests of all stakeholders, including customers, partners, employees, investors, our communities and the environment. Salesforce Ventures is uniquely positioned to catalyze the growth of companies who are building products and solutions to benefit society across four key focus areas:

• Workforce development: Companies enabling equal access to education to prepare students and the workforce for jobs of the future.
• Equality: Companies developing tools that promote equal opportunity and economic empowerment for women and underrepresented groups.
• Sustainability: Companies creating better access to clean energy, improving resource efficiency and increasing supply chain performance.
• Social sector: Companies amplifying impact for nonprofits and NGOs through technology that increases efficiency and transparency.

The Salesforce Impact Fund builds on previous investments in companies driving positive social change and aligns with Salesforce Ventures’ charter to strategically invest in companies built on the Salesforce Platform, delivering unique capabilities to Salesforce customers. The first funding recipients include:

• Angaza: A leading SaaS platform that enables manufacturers and distributors to make clean energy products more affordable to the world’s 1 billion off-grid consumers.
• Ellevest: An investing platform designed for women that aims to solve the gender investment gap.
• Hustle: A peer-to-peer text messaging platform enabling non-profits, educational institutions and advocacy groups to connect with donors and constituents at scale.
• Viridis Learning: A leading human capital SaaS platform that uses machine learning and predictive analytics to facilitate career discovery, create career pathways and ensure learning aligns with 21st century workforce needs.

Salesforce Ventures, A Leading Global Corporate Venture Capital Group
Salesforce Ventures—Salesforce’s corporate investment group—invests in the next generation of enterprise technology to extend the power of the Salesforce Intelligent Customer Success Platform to help companies connect with their customers in entirely new ways. Focused on building the world’s #1 cloud computing ecosystem, Salesforce Ventures is the most active investor in the Forbes Cloud 100 list. Salesforce Ventures has also been one of CBInsights’ top 4 most active global CVCs for the past 4 years.

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 Salesforce’s expertise in corporate philanthropy by joining Pledge 1% to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 250 enterprise cloud startups in 14 different countries since 2009.