Salesforce Creates $100M Fund Focused on Mobile Apps

Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) announced Monday a new $100 million fund dedicated to mobile technology. The Salesforce1 Fund, named after the CRM company’s mobile platform, will invest in companies building mobile apps and connected products.

Salesforce 1 is the first dedicated fund from Salesforce Ventures, but San Francisco-based company has been steadily investing in startups for the past five years. As of July 31, 2014, Salesforce reported having invested nearly $110 million in privately held companies, with the estimated value of those investments equaling $215 million.

“We’re really focused as a company on the mobile space, because we believe that is how technology in the enterprise is evolving,” said John Somorjai, EVP of Corporate Development and Strategy at Salesforce.com. “By 2020, we believe there will be 50 billion connected things, which includes smartphones, wearables and connected devices.”

Salesforce.com’s goal, said Somorjai, is to enable companies to run their entire businesses from a mobile phone or device. The first Salesforce1 Fund investments include DocuSign and InsideSales.com. DocuSign is a digital transaction management platform, while InsideSales.com provides lead management and other telephone features for field representatives.

Somorjai said there will be no major changes in the way the Salesforce1 Fund is run compared to other Salesforce Ventures investments. Salesforce.com co-invests with venture capital firms and does not lead investment rounds, so the company is able to make more investments in a greater number of companies.

Shares of Salesforce.com are up 9.4% year-to-date. The stock was up nearly 1% Monday afternoon.