The start-up downturn kicked in late last year, after a stock market correction in August. Venture investing in the U.S. dropped 28 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to the National Venture Capital Association, even as full-year financing reached the highest since 2000.
There hasn’t been a tech IPO in the U.S. this year.
Salesforce has still participated in some hefty rounds, including a $90 million investment in enterprise planning software developer Anaplan in January and a $56 million financing of marketing software start-up BloomReach the same month.
Salesforce Ventures has more companies worth at least $1 billion in its portfolio than any other corporate VC, CB Insights’ data show. Among them are DocuSign, MuleSoft and Anaplan.
“Good companies continue to be able to raise money,” Somorjai said. “Even though valuations have compressed a little bit, that’s OK.”
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