Salesforce is acquiring enterprise e-commerce startup CloudCraze

Salesforce is acquiring Chicago-based CloudCraze, an enterprise e-commerce solution built on its cloud-based customer relationship management platform. The deal was announced on Monday by CloudCraze on its site without disclosing the financial details.

"With the addition of CloudCraze to the Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Salesforce and its customers can now take advantage of this shift to digital commerce, enabling business buyers to browse and purchase online as easily as consumers shop today," said Ray Grady, President and Chief Customer Officer, CloudCraze in a blogpost.

The acquisition makes sense for both CloudCraze and Salesforce. CloudCraze’s B2B commerce software is built natively on the Salesforce platform, and Salesforce Ventures backed the startup’s $20 million round in 2017.

CloudCraze claims that its products and services have helped companies to build better commerce technologies and also generate higher revenue as well as develop business models that are easily scalable. Some of the well-known companies that have benefitted from Salesforce’s services include Coca-Cola and WABCO.

This isn’t the first time Salesforce has acquired a local startup that was built on its platform. Godard Abel’s price-quoting startup SteelBrick was bought by Salesforce for $300 million in 2015. Other Chicago startups that have been acquired by Salesforce include Gravitytank ÄKTA, Model Metrics and Instranet.