New U.K. Investments From Salesforce

Company plans to expand U.K. headquarters at Salesforce Tower to support growing local customer base Salesforce Ventures fuels cloud innovation with investments in DigitalGenius, NewVoiceMedia and Qubit Salesforce.org partners with RNIB and CoderDojo to show the importance of ‘accessibility’ when designing and building technology Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform and world's #1 CRM company, today announced it is increasing its investments in the U.K., including a plan to take on additional space at its U.K. headquarters at Salesforce Tower in London. This follows the company’s recent announcement to hire more than 1,200 people in EMEA this year to support its fast-growing customer base and ecosystem. Salesforce also announced that Salesforce Ventures, the company’s global corporate investment group, is fueling cloud innovation in the U.K. through investments in DigitalGenius, NewVoiceMedia and Qubit. All of these announcements were made today at the Salesforce World Tour London event at the ExCeL, Salesforce’s largest event outside of Dreamforce with more than 15,000 registered attendees. Comments on the News

• “Salesforce is seeing phenomenal momentum in the U.K. and we are excited to increase our investment in this region to support our growing customer base as well as our thriving partner ecosystem,” said Andrew Lawson, U.K and Ireland (UKI) Managing Director, Salesforce. “It’s an incredible time for us to be working with some of the U.K.’s best-loved brands, as well as many of its innovative startup companies—helping to drive the digital transformation that will propel the U.K. economy forward.”
• “Digital innovation is at the heart of the U.K. economy and plays an important role in driving growth,” said Ed Vaizey, MP, Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy. “Digital technology businesses are transforming the employment landscape, driving productivity, and reimagining traditional industries. Events such as the Salesforce World Tour London serve to underline this and throw light on the vibrant technology ecosystem we have in this country.”
• “Salesforce enables us to discover and explore new insights into customer behaviour, this allows us to further strengthen the emotional connection our customers have with our brand,” said Dr. Andy Palmer, President and CEO, Aston Martin. “Working with Salesforce, we have developed an innovative platform to collaborate with our global dealer network in delivering the personalised 1-to1 service that our customers expect from a luxury brand.”
• “In addition to funding, Salesforce Ventures gives us access to the Salesforce ecosystem,” said Mikhail Naumov, Chief Strategy Officer, DigitalGenius. “Many companies worldwide use Salesforce to conduct customer service activities and our partnership with Salesforce Ventures is valued by the organisations we want to sell to.”

Salesforce Expands U.K. Headquarters to Support Growing Customer Base The global shift to the cloud has opened the door to new and exciting social, mobile and data science technologies, and has created unprecedented growth in cloud computing spending by companies across Europe. In the U.K., IDC estimates that total public cloud revenue was £1,299M during the first half of 2015, a 39 percent year over year increase. Europe continues to be one of the fastest growing regions for Salesforce worldwide, and the U.K. is a key growth driver in the region. To support its fast-growing customer base and ecosystem, Salesforce has announced plans to hire over 1,200 employees in EMEA. Many of those roles will be based in the U.K., one of the _x000C_company’s largest operations outside the USA. To accommodate its growing workforce, Salesforce has also announced plans to expand its U.K. headquarters located at Salesforce Tower, London. The expanded Salesforce U.K. headquarters will include a new world-class executive briefing centre and will showcase the company’s focus on creating a unique workspace for employees that promotes sustainability and employee wellness. Just last month, Salesforce was ranked #3 By Great Places to Work U.K. highlighting the importance that the company places on investing in its employees and their working environment. Salesforce Ventures Fuels Cloud Innovation with Investments in U.K. Cloud Companies Last year, Salesforce Ventures—the company’s global corporate investment group—announced that it has allocated $100 million to invest in European startups to fuel cloud innovation and customer success in the region. Since that announcement, Salesforce Ventures has invested in ten next-generation enterprise cloud startups that are part of the emerging enterprise app economy in Europe. Investments in U.K. companies include:

• DigitalGenius: brings practical applications of artificial intelligence into the customer service operations of global companies. Its Human+AI Customer Service Platform combines the best of human intellect and artificial intelligence, enabling companies to live up to and exceed rising consumer expectations.
• NewVoiceMedia: provides cloud customer contact solutions that enable organisations to connect everything they know about their customers and prospects to every conversation they have with them.
• Qubit: provides a digital experience management platform that integrates analytics, segmentation, AB and multivariate testing, and web personalization functionalities with its Visitor Cloud, the world’s first real-time data supply chain.

Salesforce Ventures portfolio companies receive funding to accelerate their growth and gain a competitive edge through access to the world’s largest cloud ecosystem and the guidance of Salesforce innovators and executives. With Salesforce Ventures, portfolio companies can also leverage the expertise of Salesforce.org to incorporate its 1-1-1 model of integrated philanthropy to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce World Tour London: A Day of Innovation, Fun and Giving Back With more than 15,000 registered attendees, Salesforce World Tour London will bring together Salesforce experts, partners and customers to demonstrate how companies of all sizes and industries are leveraging the Salesforce Customer Success Platform to connect with their customers in a whole new way. Salesforce Chief Adoption Officer, Polly Sumner will deliver the main keynote and the following U.K companies will share their transformation stories:

• Aston Martin: The iconic luxury car brand is using Salesforce to deliver rich, personalised 1-to-1 experiences for customers at every touch point – whether on the phone, online or in the showroom.
• BBC: BBC is using Salesforce to create a whole new way for viewers to enjoy entertainment online with tailored viewing recommendations and personalised communications.
• SThree: The global recruitment company is using Salesforce to create a new mobile app and gain a competitive edge.

Salesforce has a long history of giving technology, financial resources and employee time to nonprofits through its 1-1-1 model of integrated corporate philanthropy. In keeping with this model, Salesforce.org has partnered with The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and CoderDojo, a global community of volunteer led coding clubs. Together, they will offer multiple on- site demonstrations to show the ways that technology can be used to improve accessibility for blind and partially sighted people, including a simulation to experience sight loss; a demonstration of RNIB’s augmented reality application to assist the visually impaired; and a special CoderDojo for visually impaired youth.