Salesforce launches $50m Australia VC fund

The Australia Trailblazer Fund will be managed by Salesforce Ventures, the company’s venture arm, and joins similar vehicles focused on Japan, Canada, and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It will target enterprise software start-ups with a focus on software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud computing companies in the Salesforce ecosystem, according to a statement.

Salesforce Ventures has been investing in Australia since 2012, and has backed companies such as marketing software provider Autopilot and crowdsourced security company Bugcrowd. With 45% of Australian start-ups focusing on SaaS applications, according to StartupAUS, the firm sees a considerable opportunity to support and grow this market through its investments.

“We believe the Australian market is on the verge of breaking out from a start-up and venture capital point of view,” said Rob Keith, Salesforce Ventures’ head of Australia, in an interview. “There is a combination of talent, capital, great research universities and successful exits that create a great network effect, and Australia is beginning to capitalize on that.”

Corporate VC firms are becoming increasingly active in Asia Pacific, as strategic players look to position themselves for future growth and access new technology. Recent activity in Australia includes the announcement last week of a $61 million initiative by Cisco aimed at investing local start-ups, as well as developing critical infrastructure and supporting government digitization projects.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Venture
• Fundraising
• GPs
• Technology
• Australia
• TMT
• professional services