Robert Keith, principal at customer relationship management (CRM) software provider Salesforce’s corporate venturing arm, Salesforce Ventures, was promoted to head of Australia last month.
The move involved Keith relocating to the unit’s Sydney office and it came as Salesforce Ventures launched the $50m Australia Trailblazer Fund, to invest in Australia-based startups that develop cloud-based enterprise software.
Nine months prior to joining the unit in July 2014, Keith worked on the initial public offering (IPO) for life sciences-focused CRM application provider Veeva, which represented one of Salesforce Ventures’ first IPO exits, as an investment banking analyst at financial services firm Morgan Stanley.
Concerning his new remit, Keith said: “In Australia and New Zealand, the successes of companies like (collaboration software provider) Atlassian and (billing and subscription software producer) Xero have helped to spur a tech ecosystem and created a flywheel for further innovation.
“We have seen the second wave of amazing enterprise companies emerge such as Canva, Deputy, Safety Culture and Culture Amp. We also believe the Australian market is on the verge of breaking out from a startup and venture capital point of view.
“Our hope is that Salesforce Ventures is one of the first venture firms that SaaS (software-as-a-service) entrepreneurs reach out to when they decide to raise capital and bring on partners.
“I truly think we are in the early innings of the startup ecosystem in Australia, and I am incredibly excited to be able to participate in and help shape the forefront of the technology ecosystem there.”
Photo of Robert Keith courtesy of LinkedIn.
