The investment arm of SaaS giant Salesforce has launched a new $125m European fund.
The ‘Europe Trailblazer Fund’ will allow Salesforce Ventures to invest in cutting-edge tech including digital payments, machine vision and AI and blockchain.
The investment will come with executive support and product alignment alongside the financing as it helps its start-ups scale.
In 2015 it introduced its first $100m investment commitment in Europe, led by Alex Kayyal, partner and head of Europe. It has now backed more than 50 startups in 13 countries in Europe.
Kayyal said the strategy is a reaction to the increasing success of European enterprise companies over their traditionally well-funded consumer counterparts.
Its previous UK investments have include London-based FinTech firm GoCardless, cybersecurity software firm Privitar and biometrics specialists Onfido, which was named a BusinessCloud ‘AI Innovator’ and raised £38bn funding in April.
“The European startup ecosystem is growing in unprecedented ways. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be an entrepreneur, particularly in the B2B space,” wrote Kayyal in a company blog.
“There’s arguably never been a better time to start a SaaS company in Europe, and I’m thrilled that with this fund we’ll be able to support entrepreneurs on their path to building enduring enterprise companies.”
The latest European fund is part of a global strategy which follows its $100m ‘Trailblazer Fund’ in Canada, and a $50m fund for Australia.