Salesforce sells cloud software that helps businesses manage sales leads, customer service, marketing, and online commerce from shared customer records. Its flagship Sales Cloud tracks accounts and deals, while Service Cloud organizes support cases and Agentforce builds AI assistants that act on company data. Teams access these tools through a browser and connect outside apps and data sources, with Slack for work messages and Tableau for visual analysis. Salesforce earns most of its revenue from software subscriptions and support, with professional services for implementation and training. Marc Benioff co-founded Salesforce in 1999, and its headquarters are in San Francisco, California.
Company Size
10,001+
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Founded
1999
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Forter has become a launch partner for Salesforce's new Storefront Next platform and extended its fraud protection to Salesforce Loyalty Management. The collaboration embeds Forter's trust intelligence across Salesforce commerce offerings, including AI-driven shopping experiences through Shopper Agent and Commerce Cloud Client. The integration helps merchants prevent fraud, chargebacks and account takeovers whilst approving legitimate orders. Built on a global identity network, Forter's system recognises trusted shoppers from their first interaction. The expanded partnership addresses rising loyalty fraud by combining Forter's Account Protection with Salesforce Loyalty Management to block bad actors and policy abuse. Forter was previously named Salesforce's 2027 Partner of the Year for Transform & Scale. The company serves nearly 1 million businesses, including Nordstrom, Instacart and Priceline.
Salesforce acquires AI research startup Listen Labs in $2 billion deal. TL;DR - Key Takeaways - Salesforce has agreed to acquire Listen Labs for approximately $2 billion, significantly expanding its AI-powered customer intelligence capabilities. - Listen Labs uses autonomous AI agents to conduct qualitative research, including participant recruitment, interviews and analysis across 120 languages. - Salesforce plans to integrate Listen Labs into Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud and Agentforce to add more qualitative customer context to its AI and automation tools. Salesforce Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Listen Labs Inc., an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered customer research platform, in a deal valued at approximately $2 billion. The acquisition, expected to close in the fourth quarter of Salesforce's fiscal year 2027 pending regulatory clearance, marks a major step in the software giant's strategy to deepen the intelligence behind its enterprise automation tools. Salesforce shares rose 3% following news of the agreement. Founded in 2023 by CEO Alfred Wahlforss and Chief Technology Officer Florian Jüngermann, San Francisco-based Listen Labs automates qualitative customer research. While traditional focus groups and in-depth interviews can take weeks and cost thousands of dollars, Listen Labs uses autonomous AI agents to design study guides, recruit participants from a global network of 50 million people, conduct dynamic open-ended audio and video interviews across 120 languages, and synthesize findings in days. The platform, which also creates digital twins, boasts a customer list that includes Microsoft Corp., Google, Anthropic, Nestlé, and Sweetgreen. Salesforce plans to integrate Listen Labs' technology into its Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud platforms, as well as its rapidly growing agentic platform, Agentforce. CRM systems historically excel at tracking quantitative data such as purchase histories and support tickets, but they often lack qualitative context. "Listen Labs has reimagined customer experience, market research, and customer simulation with AI agents that can conduct meaningful research and uncover context behind customer and user feedback," said Aman Naimat, president of AI Labs at Salesforce. The Listen Labs team will join Salesforce AI Labs, with Wahlforss and Jüngermann continuing in their leadership roles. The $2 billion price tag represents an implied multiple of roughly 67 times Listen Labs' annualized revenue of $30 million. It also highlights a steep valuation trajectory for the startup, which was valued at $500 million during its Series B funding round in January 2026. Prior to the Salesforce deal, Listen Labs had signed a term sheet with Menlo Ventures for a $125 million round at a $1.5 billion valuation, which it ultimately abandoned to pursue the acquisition. The deal marks Salesforce's third major AI-focused acquisition of 2026. In June, the company agreed to buy customer service automation startup Fin for $3.6 billion, alongside usage-based billing platform m3ter. These follow Salesforce's $8 billion acquisition of data management firm Informatica late last year. Together, the acquisitions highlight Salesforce's broader goal: building an end-to-end ecosystem where AI agents do not just process data, but understand customer motivations to take autonomous, highly contextual actions. "Salesforce is buying a production tool and betting it can become a trusted input for agents. Running interviews and writing up findings is work AI makes easy, so the value comes from verifying research well enough for Agentforce to act on it," said Mitch Ashley, vice president and practice lead for Software Lifecycle Engineering and AI-Native Software Engineering at The Futurum Group. "The buyer is the CMO or product leader, and the CIO inherits the governance. Watch whether Salesforce prices this as a standalone seat or folds it into agent workflows with an audit trail."
Salesforce is expanding its AI bundles to drive adoption of its artificial intelligence tools. The company introduced Core, Advanced and Max editions for Agentforce Sales, Service and Industries in September 2026, combining AI, Slack, Tableau Next, security and support. Early results show promise. Bookings from Agentforce One Edition and Agentforce for Apps more than doubled sequentially in Q2 fiscal 2027. Agentforce ARR topped $1.5 billion, up over 240% year over year. Combined Agentforce and Data 360 ARR reached nearly $3.9 billion, rising more than 210%. Despite strong AI growth, overall company revenue growth remains modest at 11% year over year to $11.35 billion in Q2. Management expects fiscal 2027 revenue growth of 11-12%. Salesforce faces competition from Microsoft and Oracle, which are pursuing similar AI bundling strategies.
Virginia Sharma appointed as Chief Marketing Officer, Missionforce at Salesforce. October 1, 2026 Virginia Sharma has taken on a new role as Chief Marketing Officer, Missionforce at Salesforce, marking a new chapter in her professional journey. In her new role, Sharma will lead marketing for Missionforce, focusing on strengthening its market presence, building brand awareness and supporting the growth of Salesforce's evolving AI-driven offerings. With her experience in marketing and technology, Sharma will contribute to shaping Missionforce's go-to-market strategy and connecting its solutions with customers as organisations increasingly explore AI-powered capabilities. Her appointment adds to Salesforce's leadership focus around Missionforce and reflects the growing importance of AI-led innovation in the enterprise technology landscape.
Swedish entrepreneur Alfred Wahlforss co-founded Listen Labs in San Francisco in 2023 with German Florian Juengermann after meeting at Harvard. The company uses AI language models to conduct and analyse consumer interviews at scale through voice, text, and video, attracting clients including Microsoft and Google. After launching in 2025, Listen Labs quickly reached annual recurring revenue of hundreds of millions of Swedish kronor. In early 2026, the company raised approximately SEK 630 million at a valuation of around $500 million. Salesforce has now acquired Listen Labs. Whilst no financial details were disclosed, Business Insider previously reported the deal was worth approximately $2 billion. Wahlforss will remain as CEO following the acquisition.