Snowflake’s first few months on the stock market were a major win for the company and its investors. Among those who scored big was Salesforce, whose $400 million total investment in the business software maker is now worth four times as much.
The Snowflake investment was the latest in a string of hugely profitable deals by the cloud software giant in up-and-coming startups. Over the past decade, Salesforce has invested in MongoDB, Twilio, Box, DocuSign and videoconferencing powerhouse Zoom. For the most recent quarter, Salesforce reported a $1.04 billion net gain on investments in other companies—more than four times the $224 million in operating income it generated from its core business.
