Salesforce.com [NYSE: CRM], has teamed up with European venture capital firms including Notion Capital, Octopus Investments and MMC Ventures, to launch a €5m initiative for European start-ups.
The Innovation Challenge aims to inspire start-ups in Europe to build enterprise cloud apps on the Salesforce Platform, which currently powers Salesforce CRM, 1,800 partner apps on the AppExchange, and more than three million custom apps built by customers.
Eligible start-ups will be invited to present their ideas to professional investors at a series of Innovation Challenge pitch events throughout Europe hosted by salesforce.com from September to November 2013.
Selected start-ups will have the chance to raise seed funding to start a new business or a Series A investment to accelerate growth of an existing business, as well as the opportunity to build, package and sell their apps on the Salesforce AppExchange.
Business plans will be reviewed by a panel consisting of representatives from the venture capital firms and salesforce.com, along seven main criteria:
– An existing product developed to beta or later stage
– Demonstration of traction, customer success and user adoption
– Market opportunity & go-to-market strategy
– Track record and passion of the entrepreneurial team
– Planned or existing adoption and innovative utilization of the Salesforce Platform
– Competitors
– Financial plan
For info, contest rules and to apply, visit: www.salesforce.com/uk/challenge.
FinSMEs
02/05/2013