US-based ‘quote-to-cash’ software developer Apttus raised $108m last week in a series C round that represented one of five investments made last week by Salesforce Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of cloud computing company Salesforce.com.
Founded in 2006, Apttus provides software compatible with Salesforce’s Salesforce1 platform that helps businesses in the space between a prospective buyer’s interest and the close of a sale, and includes configure-price-quote, proposal management, contract management and revenue management features.
Salesforce Ventures was joined by sovereign wealth fund Kuwait Investment Authority, which led the round, as well as family office Iconiq Capital and private equity firm K1 Investment Management. The round valued Apttus’ at “well north of $1bn,” chief executive Kirk Krappe told Fortune, and increased its overall funding to more than $185m.
Apttus plans to use the cash to upgrade its platform, expanding its user base by introducing features to serve clients in the manufacturing, life sciences, financial services and telecommunications industries. It also intends to grow its workforce by over 50% to 1,400 by the end of this year, with 200 of the 500 projected new employees to join the company’s sales division.
The $108m round was one of five that closed last week with contributions from Salesforce Ventures, the others being native marketing app developer Wrap Media, which raised $12.7m, marketing human resources provider Universal Avenue, which secured $5m, app development platform Yappli and online information filter Guru, each of which raised $2.7m.
The Apttus investment also highlights the way in which Salesforce is building an ecosystem around Salesforce1, which provides enterprise cloud services as well as allowing external apps to be connected to it, by opting to back companies developing software for the platform.
Apttus is also not the only Salesforce1 company to secure unicorn status this year. Twilio closed a $130m Salesforce-backed round in July that valued it at $1.1bn, while other notable rounds raised by startups utilising the platform include business planning software producer FinancialForce, which raised $110m, and price quote app developer SteelBrick, which secured $18m in February.
Salesforce funds those companies out of the $100m Salesforce1 fund it formed in September 2014, with the first wave of portfolio companies including DocuSign, the e-signature technology developer that closed a $115m series E round the following month, and which is now valued at $3bn.
Apttus, which raised its first venture capital round in 2013, six years after it was formed, could end up being the fund’s first exit, if indeed it beats DocuSign to an initial public offering that could take place as early as 2016. It has not disclosed the size of Salesforce Ventures’ stake, but as the corporate has invested in all three of the company’s rounds, it is sure to be substantial.
In a wider sense, the increased investments by Salesforce Ventures, which has now backed 25 companies so far this year, reflects not only the growing ecosystem around its product but also the acceleration in the enterprise software sector that has led to other notable enterprise businesses such as Box, Workday, Expensify and the aforementioned Twilio launching their own strategic funds.
The willingness of these companies to enter the world of corporate venturing can partially be attributed to the rapid recent growth of companies such as office communication app developer Slack and payroll compliance software provider Zenefits, as well as what Expensify CEO David Barrett termed “the complexity of the problem domains” in enterprise software.
However, the way Salesforce Ventures has gone about building a portfolio that is not only strategically relevant but potentially lucrative must also be a factor. In addition to its unicorn portfolio companies, it is also set to exit at least four companies this year – Authy and 2lemetry through acquisitions, and TerraSky and Xcatly through IPOs – and with more on the horizon, Salesforce could be on the cusp of some serious returns.