- Salesforce Ventures has announced it launched a new $50 million Consultant Trailblazer Fund
CRM leader Salesforce announced that Salesforce Ventures — the company’s global corporate investment group — has launched a new $50 million Consultant Trailblazer Fund. This fund will provide the next generation of cloud consulting companies and digital agencies with the capital required for building and scaling their Salesforce services capabilities for the future. And it will empower more customers to transform their businesses with Salesforce.
In a study by IDC, it was revealed that Salesforce and its ecosystem of customers and partners will drive $1.2 trillion in new business revenues and 4.2 million new jobs worldwide between 2019 and 2024. This growing demand for Salesforce solutions presents a massive opportunity for Salesforce partners. In fact, many also reported that their Salesforce practices are growing by more than 50% annually.
“Salesforce Ventures is the only strategic fund focused 100% on creating the world’s largest ecosystem of enterprise cloud companies and extending that technology to Salesforce customers,” said John Somorjai, EVP of Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures. “Consultancies and digital agencies play a vital role in our customers’ digital transformations. This follow-on fund dedicated to our consultant ecosystem will drive further customer success around the globe.”
The Consultant Trailblazer Fund will support this thriving Salesforce ecosystem with an infusion of capital and resources along with empowering more partners to deliver the personalized experiences customers expect and drive customer success with Salesforce Customer 360. Salesforce has a goal of reaching 250,000 certified consultants by 2022 and this fund will help accomplish that goal.
“Salesforce partners are a driving force behind the growth of the Salesforce ecosystem, which will create millions of jobs over the next few years as companies accelerate their digital transformations,” added Tyler Prince, EVP of Industries and Partners at Salesforce. “With the Consultant Trailblazer Fund, we’ll continue our focus on fueling the growth of so many incredible consulting and agency partners, enabling them to keep pace with customer demand.”
The first $50 million Consultant Trailblazer Fund was launched in May 2017 and it fully committed the investment dollars in just over two years. Through that fund, Salesforce Ventures invested in leading consulting firms, including Astound Commerce, ListEngage, Silverline, Simplus and Xertica for accelerating continued growth and to arm teams with the resources needed to help companies successfully and quickly implement Salesforce technologies.
“Since Salesforce Ventures first invested in Simplus in 2016, we have expanded globally and are now a Salesforce Platinum Partner,” explained Simplus CEO Ryan Westwood. “Salesforce Ventures has supported us throughout our expansion into APAC, Canada and EMEA. Salesforce Ventures’ presence in our board meetings, introductions and support of our ongoing strategy have been invaluable to the growth of Simplus.”
The portfolio companies of Salesforce Ventures receive funding, strategic advisory and operating support, and can easily join Pledge 1% to make giving back part of their business model. So far, Salesforce Ventures invested in over 375 companies such as DocuSign, GoCardless, Guild Education, nCino, Twilio, and Zoom.
“Silverline’s vision has always been to help our clients transform their businesses using the Salesforce Platform. Partnering with Salesforce Ventures has allowed us to execute that vision while expanding our incredible team, and deepening our focus on the financial services and healthcare industries,” commented Gireesh Sonnad, CEO and Co-Founder of Silverline. “Salesforce Ventures continues to be a committed partner, helping Silverline to scale and further develop deep expertise in Salesforce technologies for our clients. Since the initial investment, Silverline has grown from a Silver to Platinum Salesforce Cloud Alliance partner, with hundreds of consultants and over 1,200 Salesforce implementations.”
