Salesforce, a US-based enterprise cloud computing company, has acquired for $50m one of its corporate venturing-backed portfolio companies, Assistly, a virtual customer-service help desk that had raised $5.7m in venture funding.
Last month, Salesforce had integrated with Assistly, after previously been part of the consortium backing Assistly, which had been founded in 2009.
The other investors include venture capital firms Bullpen Capital, Index Ventures, Social Leverage and True Ventures, which had backed Assistly’s $3m initial series B round in January.
Bernard Dallé, a partner at Index, in his blog said: "On the back of its active corporate development program, Salesforce made a strategic investment earlier this year.
"A couple of months ago, witnessing how the company was developing ahead of expectations, Salesforce decided it was time to move aggressively and acquire the business.
"It is a logical step: Salesforce announced its ambition in social media management with their Radian6 purchase early this year and is acutely aware of the importance of customer service through ServiceCloud. Assistly will now enable Salesforce to effectively serve a larger base of customers, starting with SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises]."