Salesforce buys Braze for $5.66B: Marketing Cloud gets mobile-first muscle

Salesforce buys Braze for $5.66B: Marketing Cloud gets mobile-first muscle

Yesterday
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The Gist

  • Salesforce acquires Braze at 6.8x revenue to boost real-time mobile and in-app engagement
  • Braze's 2,770 customers include Canva, Instacart, and Venmo; fills gaps in Marketing Cloud
  • Deal continues Salesforce's 2026 acquisition spree (Contentful, m3ter, Fin, Listen Labs, Loops)
  • Marketing software trades at depressed 3-4x multiples as AI threatens contact-based pricing
Key Quotes

Strategic buyers see the same category differently. A 26% grower with 2,770 enterprise customers and positive free cash flow is worth 6.8x to Salesforce because it can sell Data 360 and Agentforce into those accounts.

Jason Lemkin

Public B2B companies growing 20-30% are being priced as pre-AI apps at risk of disruption. Strategic buyers price the same companies on their distribution, their data, and thousands of enterprise relationships that would take years to build.

Jason Lemkin
Key Insights
  • Salesforce is acquiring Braze for $5.66 billion, a 6.8x multiple of Braze's trailing twelve months revenue.
  • Braze's acquisition strengthens Salesforce's Marketing Cloud, particularly in mobile and in-app engagement, where it was previously weak.
  • Strategic buyers like Salesforce value companies differently than public investors, often paying a premium for customer bases and cross-selling opportunities.
  • Braze's AI adoption reached one-third of its largest customers, but this did not significantly impact its stock price due to lack of visible growth contribution.
  • Public investors are pricing marketing tech companies lower due to perceived risks from AI disruption, despite strong fundamentals.
  • Braze's operating expenses grew at 6% year-over-year, significantly slower than its 26% revenue growth, contributing to its attractiveness as an acquisition target.
Actionable Takeaways
  • Evaluate how AI adoption can be packaged and reported to demonstrate clear growth contributions.
  • Consider strategic buyers as potential exit options, especially if public market valuations are low.
  • Focus on controlling operating expenses to improve profitability and attractiveness to acquirers.
  • Invest in cross-channel personalization capabilities to strengthen your marketing platform's value proposition.
Data Points
  • $5.66 billion (Salesforce's acquisition price for Braze)
  • 6.8x (Multiple of Braze's trailing twelve months revenue)
  • 58% (Premium paid over Braze's closing price before the acquisition)
  • 26% (Braze's year-over-year revenue growth)
  • 110% (Braze's dollar-based net retention rate)
  • 361 (Number of Braze customers paying $500,000+ annually)

RevBots.ai View:

This acquisition signals Salesforce's push to own the real-time customer engagement layer, forcing competitors to choose between building or buying similar capabilities.

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