Global customer relationship management solutions provider, Salesforce, launches Salesforce start-up program in India. The program is already present in global markets, offering start-ups an AppExchange partner program, which is the online marketplace for cloud solutions. The company offers support from its Trailblazer Community, a start-ups ecosystem under Salesforce.

Sanket Atal, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Salesforce says, “we have been working with start-ups in various ways. What we're trying to do here is to provide a unified approach for Salesforce to connect to start-ups and vice-versa. Select start-ups will get an opportunity for investments through its venture capital arm Salesforce ventures.”

“The goal is to embrace all start-ups instead of having a "small cohort" of 5-10 companies for a few months. A majority of start-ups don’t survive beyond 3-4 years, our program is designed to help the longevity of start-ups,” Atal adds.

As a part of program, start-ups will be provided with a unified platform to adopt and accelerate an environment for innovation, growth and collaboration across various functions and aspects of the Salesforce ecosystem. Additionally, it includes potential investment by investing arms, Salesforce Ventures.

The Indian start-ups ecosystem has produced 42 unicorns including start-ups with billion-dollar valuations this year, sparking interest from many global technology firms. As per August 2021 report from venture capital firm 3One4 Capital, the start-ups ecosystem in the country is expected to triple its valuation, which is currently over $1 trillion, by 2025.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO and Chairperson, Salesforce India says, “start-ups are a critical pillar to the success of our growth in India. With the Salesforce Start-up Program we wish to innovate locally to resolve local problems while at the same time promoting these solutions globally. I am confident we will be able to deliver innovation at scale enabling growth for both the ecosystem and Salesforce.”