Snowflake valuation skyrockets to $12.4 billion following strategic partnership with Salesforce
Cloud data platform Snowflake has announced additional growth funding to the tune of USD$479 million, co-led by new investors Dragoneer Investment Group and Salesforce Ventures.
Existing Snowflake investors, including Altimeter Capital, ICONIQ Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia, and Sutter Hill Ventures, are also participating in the round.
The funding round raises Snowflake's post-money valuation to over USD$12.4 billion. The additional funding, and a new strategic partnership with Salesforce, is expected to further strengthen Snowflakes market position and accelerate its momentum as the leading cloud data platform.
Based in San Francisco, Dragoneer is a growth-oriented investment firm with over $8.5 billion in long-duration capital from many of the world's leading endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices. Dragoneer has a history of partnering with management teams growing companies characterised by sustainable differentiation and superior economic models.
The firm's track record includes public and private investments across industries and geographies, with a particular focus on technology-enabled businesses. Dragoneer has been an investor in companies such as Airbnb, AmWINS, AppFolio, Datadog, Etsy, MercadoLibre, PointClickCare, Procore, ServiceNow, Slack, Spotify, Square, Twilio, Uber, and others.
"Snowflake's rapid growth and ability to unlock real value for customers have been impressive," says Marc Stad, founder and managing partner of Dragoneer.
"We are confident Snowflake's innovative and evolving technology, and its customer-first approach, will continue to drive sustainable momentum over the long-term," he says.
Salesforce Ventures is the global investment arm of Salesforce, and invests in the next generation of enterprise technology that extends the power of the Salesforce Platform. Portfolio companies receive funding, strategic advisory and operating support, and can easily join Pledge 1% to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 375 companies, including DocuSign, GoCardless, Guild Education, nCino, Twilio, Zoom and others across 22 countries since 2009.
Snowflake CEO, Frank Slootman, says the Snowflake cloud data platform aims to 'shatter the barriers that have prevented organisations of all sizes from unleashing the true value from their data'. Snowflake equips organisations with a single, integrated platform that offers the data warehouse built for the cloud and a core architecture to enable many types of data workloads, including a single platform for developing modern data applications.
Some of Snowflake's most recent customers include Accor, Brex, CONA Services, ConAgra Foods, Domino's Pizza Enterprises Limited, JetBlue, and Nationwide.
"We look forward to Dragoneer's experience and insights as we continue to serve our customers and grow our business," says Slootman.
"We also welcome our partnership with Salesforce and look forward to the positive impact our technologies and services will deliver to our customers and the broader market," he says.
Details of the partnership with Salesforce will be announced at Snowflake's annual user conference, Snowflake Summt, The conference takes place at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas, from June 1-4, 2020.Since its general release in mid-2015, Snowflake has grown a customer base of 3,400 and continues to grow rapidly.
