Sapphire Ventures was founded in 1996 as SAP's corporate venture arm, spun out as an independent firm in 2011 under CEO Nino Marakovic's leadership, and rebranded to its current name in 2014. That corporate origin left a lasting structural advantage: unlike most enterprise-focused funds, Sapphire operates both direct investing and a dedicated fund-of-funds strategy, Sapphire Partners, which backs early-stage venture funds across North America, Europe, and Israel alongside direct co-investments. The firm invests primarily at Series B through pre-IPO, writing checks from $5 million to $100 million to support companies staying private longer as they scale toward IPO-ready revenue, and has grown from $1.4 billion under management at spinout to more than $11 billion today across 226-plus portfolio companies, 30-plus public listings, and 50-plus acquisitions.
MuleSoft's 2018 acquisition by Salesforce for $6.5 billion - a portfolio company Sapphire backed from SAP Ventures days through its own independent era