Yasmin YablonkoEfi Cohen, cofounder of Israeli company Datorama, sold to CRM giant Salesforce in 2018 for $800 million, has been appointed head of Salesforce's R&D center in Israel, Salesforce announced today. In his new position, Cohen will be responsible for Salesforce's 600 R&D employees in Israel. A source close to the company said that Salesforce was planning to hire 1,000 more development employees in Israel in the coming year.
Salesforce's acquisitions in Israel have greatly expanded its R&D activity here in recent years. In 2011, Salesforce acquired Navajo Systems, a developer of data security for cloud computing, for $30 million, and Navajo became its first R&D center in Israel. This was followed by the acquisition of artificial intelligence (AI) companies BlueTail and Implisit Insights. Salesforce then acquired Datorama, and in May 2019 acquired Bonobo.ai, which raised only $4.4 million before it was acquired. Last June, Salesforce acquired Clicksoftware Technologies for $1.35 billion. Some of the employees at the companies acquired by Salesforce became the basis for the latter's local development center, which has grown considerably in recent years. For example, Datorama had 400 employees when it was acquired, and Clicksoftware had 200.
