Salesforce Ventures Doubles Down Again On AI

Once again, Salesforce Ventures 1 — Salesforce’s venture arm — is doubling the size of its AI commitments, which now total $1 billion.

The investment arm of the tech giant announced a new $500 million AI fund — which is in addition to its AI fund announced last year.

In March 2023, Salesforce Ventures said it would launch a new $250 million generative AI fund that will look at promising generative AI startups. The firm announced at its TrailblazerDX event it would initially invest in four AI companies — Anthropic, Cohere, Hearth.AI and you.com.

Just three months later it announced it would double the size of its AI Fund to $500 million.

The latest fund once again shows investors’ — especially corporations’ — insatiable appetite for all things AI. While venture funding scuffled in August, AI led all sectors in capital raised — with startups raising $4.3 billion, or around 24% of total venture funding, per Crunchbase data.

Salesforce Ventures has helped those numbers. Just last month it invested into the likes of Ensemble AI and Protect AI. In total, the investment arm has taken part in 10 deals involving AI-related companies, per Crunchbase data.

More money

Salesforce Ventures wasn’t the only firm with fund news early this week. Private equity firm Insight Partners is close to closing a new $10 billion-plus fund — roughly half the amount originally targeted, the Financial Times reported.

The fund may end up being closer to $12 billion, per the report.

Insight has been in the news recently thanks to a pair of exits. Just last week, credit card giant Mastercard agreed to buy threat intelligence company Recorded Future from Insight Partners for $2.65 billion. The deal represents a nice return for the private equity firm, which bought the startup in 2019 for $780 million.

The week before, another portfolio company, Own, was sold to Salesforce for $1.9 billion.