In the past few years, there is a growing demand for purpose-driven finance or some call it ‘Impact investing.’ This has resulted in a new approach of investing capital to generate positive social & environmental impact, alongside a financial return.
According to the survey by Global Impact Investing (GIIN), the $715B global impact investing market is maturing, driven by better measurement and strong performance. Furthermore, the report said that the top sector for capital allocations are energy and financial services, excluding microfinance. When it comes to impact investment, environmental and social considerations are the front and center in the decision-making criteria for investors.
New impact fund
Building on the success of its first $50M (approx €43M) Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund in 2017, Salesforce Ventures announced its second Impact Fund – $100M (approx €85M). The company intends to use the funding to accelerate the growth of cloud companies driving impact across education and workforce development, sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Right now, the company intends to continue to advance the growth of these important companies by making new investments, and providing portfolio companies with differentiated access to one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies in the world, offering credibility, expert advice, and customer introductions.
May the philanthropic force be with you
The venture arm of Salesforce has invested in more than 400 companies, including DocuSign, GoCardless, Guild Education, nCino, Twilio, Zoom, and others across 22 countries since 2009. Notably, the portfolio companies receive funding, strategic advisory, and operating support, and can easily join Pledge 1%.
Pledge 1% is an initiative of Salesforce.org – a social impact center of Salesforce – that invites entrepreneurs and their companies to support integrating philanthropy into their business from an early stage. As per Salesforce, over 10,000 members in 100 countries have used Pledge 1%’s flexible framework to ignite half a billion dollars in new philanthropy.
Salesforce.org calls its integrated philanthropic approach the 1-1-1 model. According to the center, since its founding, it has given more than $240M (nearly €294M) in grants, 3.5 million hours of community service, and provided product donations for more than 39,000 nonprofits and education institutions,”
Main image credits: Jonathan Weiss/ Shutterstock
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