Salesforce has announced that Salesforce Ventures has launched the Australia Trailblazer Fund. The fund, initially set at $50 Million will invest in Australian startups developing apps for the Salesforce ecosystem. This is a welcome boost for Australian startups. Startup Muster believes that more than half of Australian start ups are looking to raise funds. With only Melbourne recently making the Savills top thirty Tech Cities in Motion this may also help boost other locations in the country.
Salesforce Ventures has a history of investing in Australian startups. These include companies such as Arxxus, Bugcrowd and Sqware Peg. Casey Ellis, Chairman, Founder & CTO of Bugcrowd commented: “It fills me with pride to see Salesforce stepping up into my home country like this. The establishment of Salesforce Ventures in Australia speaks volumes of the calibre of Australian entrepreneurs, as well as their forward-looking attitude.
“Salesforce Ventures was an early investor in Bugcrowd, and is continuing to take to the global market. Alongside the capital, this move will deepen the availability of Salesforce’s considerable technical and partnership resources to Australian entrepreneurs, which will help fuel the process of supporting Australia’s talent and accelerate local innovations into the global market.”
The announcement was delivered in time for the Salesforce World Tour Sydney event. John Somorjai, EVP of Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures commented: “Salesforce Ventures recognises the incredible opportunity to invest in Australian entrepreneurs to create world-class startups that will grow the opportunity within the Salesforce ecosystem and deliver customer success.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Salesforce only opened its first data centre in Australia in October 2017. Since then it has seen significant growth in the region. This latest investment is planning for the long term. This fund should enable Salesforce to attracts more startups onto its ecosystem. If it does it will ultimately mean a richer experience for customers, certainly in Australia and probably beyond.
There is no indication whether this is a US dollar or AUS Dollar investment, the assumption is the former. This is because of the similar amounts that Salesforce has previously announced for other countries.
