US software giant Salesforce started the year by announcing roughly 7,000 vacancies, with its Australian venture capital operations having been destroyed by the job losses.
The AFR reports that Mike Ferrari, who heads up Salesforce Ventures in Australia, was among those made redundant during the cull, which wiped out 10 per cent of the company’s global workforce.
Salesforce Ventures entered the Australian market in 2019, with a view to invest $50 million in local start-ups.
Among those funded was Marketplacer, which provides ecommerce platforms for numerous major retailers, including Woolworths, Myer, Barbeques Galore, and Optus.
Salesforce invested $5 million into the company in April 2021, which Marketplacer co-founder and executive chairman Jason Wyatt said “gives Marketplacer a huge amount of credibility, as we get huge clients on board.”
With Ferrari gone, Salesforce Ventures has no local employees. Despite this, the company insists it will not be abandoning its local investments.
“We will manage our investments from the United States and continue to engage with our 17 portfolio companies and the local start-up and venture capital ecosystem,” Salesforce’s Australian spokesman said.
“We will continue to make new and follow-on investments in the Australian market.”
Salesforce has not confirmed how many Australian employees were fired during the cull.
Like Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft before them, Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff blamed overzealous hiring during the pandemic for the recent cuts.
“As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that,” he wrote.
ChannelNews has contacted Marketplacer to see how Salesforce’s retreat will impact the company. We will update the story if we receive a reply.
