Emily Zhao
Managing Director·Salesforce Ventures
Bio
Professional summary
Emily Zhao is a Managing Director at Salesforce Ventures focused on AI infrastructure, robotics, developer tooling, and cybersecurity. She joined Salesforce Ventures in 2022 and helped launch its $1B Generative AI fund, leading or supporting investments including Anthropic, Hugging Face, Together AI, fal, Runway, and Cohere. Before Salesforce Ventures, she invested at Avenir Growth Capital in vertical SaaS, health tech, and application software, and earlier worked in Blackstone's Private Equity group and JPMorgan's Investment Banking group. She holds a BA in Economics and Art History from Dartmouth.
Investment focus
Stage, sector, and overall fit
Stage
Sector
Thesis
Notable companies
Selected portfolio companies the partner has backed
How to approach
Framing and angles for outreach
Pitch framing
Lead with technical differentiation in AI infrastructure, robotics, developer tooling, or AI security, and connect it to enterprise-grade adoption or platform defensibility.
Partneralization hooks
- 1Helped launch Salesforce Ventures' $1B Generative AI fund.
- 2Has prior venture-growth experience across vertical SaaS, health tech, and application software.
Recent signals
What the partner has said or done recently
Co-authored official Salesforce Ventures posts on Anthropic, Goodfire, Fundamental, Dyna Robotics, Cohere, fal, Protect AI, Chainguard, Together AI, Hugging Face, and robotics.
Public writing indicates active interest in AI infrastructure, AI interpretability, robotics, and structured data.
Background
Career, education, and skills
Career history
- Salesforce VenturesManaging Director2022 – Present
- Avenir Growth CapitalInvestorPrior to 2022
- BlackstoneAssociate, Private EquityPrior
- JPMorganAnalyst, Investment BankingPrior
Education
- Dartmouth CollegeB.A. Economics and Art History
Skills
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