Sydney-based enterprise Cloud company, Arxxus Technology Partners, is receiving financing from its strategic business partner, Salesforce.com.
The multinational CRM software vendor joins another company and an entrepreneur in funding the expansion of Arxxus, which produces apps on the Salesforce.com Force.com, Amazon Web Services and iOS platforms.
Arxxus Technology Partners business development and sales director, David Freyer, says it was time to “go out and raise some money” as the company wanted to capitalise on the success of the last few years.
“As we were having those discussions, we went to senior members of the team at Salesforce.com and told them we wanted to get our business plan from where it is to where we think it could be,” he said.
Realising that Arxxus needed to take on some external capital, the local Salesforce.com team pointed the company in the direction of the Salesforce.com team in San Francisco that manages the large fund they have specifically for investing in partners.
“That conversation ultimately led to this investment,” Freyer said.
“They are basically a part owner in the business now, which puts us in a unique position.”
With a network of approximately four thousand partners globally, this marks the first time that Salesforce.com is investing directly into any business in Asia Pacific.
Freyer said the reason why Salesforce.com is investing in Arxxus is because the CRM giant “sees something unique” in what the Sydney-based company provides.
“While we were already aligned with their platform, the more aligned we are to Salesforce.com the better we do,” he said.
Longer term, Freyer said what Arxxus is doing in Australia is something that is potentially replicable in other parts of the world.
“When each of the co-founders quit our former lives to start up this business, it was not to build just a small business but something substantial,” he said.
“So it’s exciting for us to partner and align with a company that has a growth rate that Salesforce.com has. "
Three’s company
In addition to the investment by Salesforce.com, the cash infusion into Arxxus also involves another company and an entrepreneur.
As this is the first time Arxxus has ever raised money externally in any form of equity, Freyer says they wanted to pick the right type of people to receive investment from based on their investment objectives.
“So along with Salesforce.com, whose interests align really nicely with us as a business, the other people that have contributed are what you would categories as high net worth individuals,” he said.
“They’re also willing to take a bet on a business in an early stage.”
Freyer said when Arxxus moves onto the next round of investment, the expectation is that it will come from “institutional like funding.”
“This really is the last time an individual could participate in this,” he said.
The current financing will be used to increase Arxxus’ investment in development and increase its business globally.
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