Salesforce Ventures, the global investment arm of Salesforce, has recently launched a $250 million generative AI fund aimed at promoting the startup ecosystem and facilitating the development of responsible generative AI. The announcement was made during TrailblazerDX, and it is expected to address the ethical and technical challenges associated with generative AI technology.
The significance of this development lies in the fact that over two-thirds of leaders are prioritizing generative AI in the next 18 months. However, the technology’s ethical and technical challenges remain a top concern. Therefore, the fund aims to tackle these issues by investing in startups that have demonstrated an ability to meaningfully transform application software and impact end-users workflows using responsible and trusted development processes.
The fund’s initial investments will be in four companies, namely Anthropic, Cohere, Hearth.AI, and You.com. According to John Somorjai, EVP Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures at Salesforce,
“Salesforce Ventures has been investing in high-potential enterprise technology businesses for more than a decade, and these initial investments from the fund in generative AI companies fit squarely into that strategy.”
The investments made through this fund will accelerate Salesforce’s commitment to fostering the next generation of innovation.
One of the companies, Anthropic, is excited to partner with Salesforce to bring its trustworthy, conversational AI assistant Claude to more businesses in a responsible and ethical manner. Daniela Amodei, President of Anthropic, stated,
“Anthropic and Salesforce share a vision for creating innovative technology that is rooted in safety, and we’re looking forward to introducing more useful AI services into the world.”
Similarly, Cohere, another company that received investment from the fund, is committed to empowering businesses to build incredible products with world-leading language AI. Aidan Gomez, Co-Founder & CEO of Cohere, said,
“We are excited to partner with Salesforce on innovative new applications to bring this technology to their enterprise customers.”
Hearth.AI, another company that received investment from the fund, is building a new category of next-gen products centered on agentic relationship management. Ashe Magalhaes, Founder of Hearth AI, expressed excitement over the partnership with Salesforce to build a world where AI helps us understand and act on our networks, creating more matched opportunities and connections.
Finally, You.com is excited to partner with Salesforce Ventures in this new era of responsible generative AI. The company’s suite of generative AI apps and products aims to enhance business users’ productivity. Richard Socher,
Founder and CEO of You.com, stated,
“We invite you to join forces with You.com as we continue to pave the way for the future of do-engines and enhanced productivity.”
