Salesforce Ventures is ramping up its commitment to the sector with an additional $500 million, bringing its total investment in AI startups to $1 billion in just 18 months.
Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of Salesforce, has announced a significant expansion of its focus on artificial intelligence (AI) with the launch of a new $500 million AI fund.
Earlier this year, Salesforce announced $250 million for Generative AI. Within a few months, it doubled this amount and has now doubled it again.
This latest fund doubles its total investment in the sector to $1 billion, underscoring its dedication to fostering AI-driven startups that are reshaping the industry.
The new fund will continue Salesforce Ventures’ mission of backing high-growth companies and visionary founders who are driving market-disrupting innovations. These investments prioritize trust and responsibility, core values that are central to Salesforce’s business ethos.
Through its investment efforts, Salesforce Ventures connects its portfolio companies with a robust network of Fortune 500 leaders and industry experts. In addition, startups gain access to Salesforce’s Office of Ethical and Humane Use, which helps balance rapid growth with ethical considerations in AI development.
Since its initial push into AI, Salesforce Ventures has invested in over two dozen companies, including industry leaders such as Anthropic, Cohere, Runway, TogetherAI, Mistral AI, and Hugging Face. These investments have provided the capital and growth opportunities necessary to scale these companies, enabling them to make a significant impact across multiple sectors.
John Somorjai, President of Salesforce Ventures, emphasized the firm’s ongoing commitment: "Salesforce Ventures is a leader in helping startups scale market-changing innovations in the cloud, and we’re expanding on that heritage to bring the power of AI to all parts of the enterprise."
With this fresh $500 million infusion, Salesforce Ventures aims to continue supporting AI pioneers while leveraging its own learnings from customers, partners, and industry developments to identify and shape the AI leaders of the future.