Salesforce Launches $50M Venture Capital Fund and Incubator

salesforceCRM company Salesforce [NYSE: CRM] has launched a new $50m fund and incubator.

Lightning Fund will invest in entrepreneurs who are building innovations on the Lightning Component Framework* extending the power of Salesforce while a new incubator will support early-stage cloud startups and consulting firms leveraging Lightning to deliver innovative solutions for customers.

The fund will leverage the knowledge and network of such vc firms as Bessemer Venture Partners, Cloud Apps Capital Partners, Emergence Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, which will partner with Salesforce Ventures to identify opportunities to jointly invest in startups.

The new incubator will provide a collaborative physical space within Salesforce offices that gives startups and services companies access to technology and mentorship. It will open in the Bay Area by the end of 2016.

*The Lightning Component Framework allows developers to build custom components—reusable pieces of functionality that form the building blocks for apps—using industry standard HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other web-enabled code. The Lightning App Builder allows them to mix and match their company’s custom components with standard components built by Salesforce, third-party developers, partners or other Salesforce customers, all available on the AppExchange, to create and customize app pages visually, without code.
New tools available in Summer 2016 include the capability to create and edit Lightning Record Pages, customize home pages for different user profiles and assign filters to a report chart component.

Fast-growing companies including FinancialForce, Kenandy and nCino build on Salesforce Lightning.

FinSMEs

08/06/2016

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