Salesforce $50m upstart fund

Salesforce has set up a $50m incubator to finance startups using its Lightning development platform, and will give them free workspace in its San Mateo office in California.

"Based in the Bay Area, the Salesforce Incubator will provide a space for select companies to innovate, collaborate, share best practices and interact with Salesforce employees," said Global program director of Salesforce for Startups.

"The space will be the physical center of gravity for the Salesforce developer community, and it will empower enterprising entrepreneurs who are building Lightning apps and leveraging the Salesforce platform."

Salesforce made the announcement at its TrailheaDX developer conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, and also announced new components to be added to Lightning in the next release. These include a data services module, branding support, and a core components repository, and more details will be given at the Dreamforce conference later this year. ®