Salesforce.com Announces AppExchange Venture Network

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Salesforce Developer Conference -- Salesforce.com , the market and technology leader in on-demand business services, today announced the AppExchange Venture Network, a new initiative designed to help entrepreneurs and venture firms build successful on demand and Software as a Service (SaaS) companies. The AppExchange Venture Network will provide technology and operational education, business strategy and networking forums for entrepreneurs, ISVs and venture capital partners to drive the growth of the on-demand industry. Several venture firms have already joined the AppExchange Venture Network, including Alloy Ventures, Battery Ventures, Bay Partners, Benchmark Capital, The Carlyle Group, Emergence Capital Partners, Granite Global Ventures, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, InterWest Partners, JMI Equity, Lighthouse Capital Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Partech International, Pinnacle Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Sierra Ventures, Sigma Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, Trinity Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners and VantagePoint Venture Partners.

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"The AppExchange Venture Network will accelerate the on-demand revolution," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. "The AppExchange Venture Network combines a select group of VCs and entrepreneurs that understand the power and innovation possible with the on-demand model and want to invest in software as a service companies to accelerate that trend."

"For nearly 25 years MDV has been a partner to entrepreneurs by taking a hands-on approach to investments and working skillfully to architect and help build successful companies," said Bryan Stolle, general partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures. "The AppExchange Venture Network will help venture firms and entrepreneurs roll up their sleeves together to build the next set of industry-leading products and companies."

"Large parts of enterprise software are moving on-demand," said Salil Deshpande, Principal, Bay Partners. "And in on-demand, salesforce.com's AppExchange is the juggernaut, with network effects. It has become the eBay of applications."

The AppExchange Venture Network will help start-up executives and venture firms take advantage of salesforce.com's expertise in multi-tenant architectures, subscription-based revenue recognition models, managing a business using the on-demand Salesforce platform and CRM applications and more. The AppExchange Venture Network will also leverage salesforce.com's AppExchange Incubator initiative, which is designed to help entrepreneurs, start-ups and established partners accelerate the creation and delivery of new multi-tenant applications and on-demand companies.

More than $225 million has been raised by two dozen companies on the AppExchange, demonstrating the industry shift to investment in on demand and SaaS companies. Contactual, Eloqua, eProject, Genius, iNeoMarketing, InsideView, Invisible CRM, Intacct, Jigsaw Data, Pandora Networks, Rally Software Development, Right90, Xactly and others have closed various levels of funding since the AppExchange went live in January 2006.

More than 575 applications are now available on salesforce.com's AppExchange, the world's first on-demand application directory, found at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange.

About salesforce.com

Salesforce.com is the market and technology leader in on-demand business services. The company's Salesforce suite of on-demand CRM applications allows customers to manage and share all of their sales, support, marketing and partner information on-demand. The Salesforce Platform, the world's first on-demand platform, enables customers, developers and partners to build powerful new on-demand applications that extend beyond CRM to deliver the benefits of multi-tenancy and The Business Web across the enterprise. The Salesforce Platform allows applications to be easily shared, exchanged and installed with a few simple clicks via salesforce.com's AppExchange directory, available at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange. Customers can also take advantage of Successforce, salesforce.com's world-class training, support, consulting and best practices offerings.

As of April 30, 2007, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 32,300 customers including ABN AMRO, America Online (AOL), Dow Jones Newswires, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, Sprint Nextel, Staples and SunTrust Banks. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM". For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com/, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

Salesforce.com is a registered trademark of salesforce.com, and AppExchange, The Business Web, IdeaExchange and Successforce are trademarks of salesforce.com, Inc., San Francisco, California. Other names used may be trademarks of their respective owners.