Salesforce is Investing $2 Billion to Focus on Their Canadian Business

One of the largest tech companies in North America has announced a massive investment in their Canadian arm.

Salesforce has unveiled plans to invest $2 billion over the next five years to fuel the growth of their Canadian business. The customer relationship management (CRM) platform is among the largest in the world and was recently named the number one CRM provider in Canada by Gartner. Forbes also named Salesforce the most innovative company in the world late last year.

“Canada is one of the most exciting investment opportunities for Salesforce and we are thrilled to commit $2B over the next five years to fuel future growth,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, Salesforce. “As the world’s fastest growing top 5 software company, we look forward to a great partnership and to expanding our employees, customers and innovation in Canada.”

The announcement comes during a visit from Prime Minister Trudeau to the Salesforce offices in San Francisco. Trudeau visited the office to chat with Benioff and other business leaders about diversity and equality and how both are important to building a great business. This builds off remarks Trudeau made during a speech at the World Economic Forum last month.

Salesforce employs more than 1,300 people in Canada, with over 700 of those in their three-floor Toronto location. They are the fastest growing company among the three largest enterprise vendors in the region, according to Gartner.

Those 1,300 employees are also giving back to Canada in a big way. Salesforce’s Canadian workers are committing 45,000 volunteer hours to their local communities in 2018, a huge increase from the 34,000 they volunteered in 2017 with nonprofits.

Salesforce has also donated over $1 million to local communities, and in another way to give back, more than 800 Canadian nonprofits such as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and the MS Society of Canada use Salesforce for free or at a steep discount.

Over 6,000 Canadian companies use Salesforce to connect with their customers. Their clients include Air Canada, Loblaws, TD Bank, TELUS and more. Both large multinational companies and smaller niche companies make use of Salesforce’s ability to manage customer data in an easy and intuitive way, far beyond phone numbers and email addresses.

Salesforce and its ecosystem of customers and partners will create more than 28,000 new direct jobs and inject $17 billion USD in new business revenue by 2022, according to data from IDC. So far, Canadians have earned 87,000 badges on Trailhead, a tool that teaches anyone how to use Salesforce to the best of their ability. Salesforce also publishes reports that dive into the trends of Canadian shoppers and retailers, and integrates with almost any kind of popular work tool such as the Canadian platform Slack.