‘Salesforce invests $500 million in AI innovation’

U.S.-based cloud software firm Salesforce on Thursday said its investment arm, Salesforce Ventures, in the last 18 months has deployed $500 million, half of the $1 billion it committed for AI innovation globally.

Although the company didn’t disclose how much of these funds have come to AI start-ups in India, Salesforce chairperson and CEO Arundhati Bhattacharya said India was critical to the company’s AI strategy.

Salesforce Ventures has already invested in five AI start-ups in the country. The investment firm was optimistic about India’s ability to innovate in agentic AI, she said.

“Salesforce Ventures sees immense potential in India as it embraces agentic AI for diverse use cases. Indian start-ups will define the future of agentic AI,” she said while addressing a media conference.

According to her, India’s start-up ecosystem, the third largest in the world, is uniquely positioned to address challenges at a billion-plus scale. “The progress we’re seeing with agentic AI is phenomenal, even though companies are just starting to dip their toes into it,” the banker turned technocrat added.

Ms. Bhattacharya further said security and compliance were key concerns for enterprises while considering agentic AI adoption.

Responding to a query on Salesforce’ focus on Indian markets, she said the company witnessed a quick scale up in the country.

“We have grown substantially from 2,500 people in 2020 to 13,500 people currently. In 2024 and in the previous year our business also grew 36% and 50%, respectively, “ she added.