In the present day’s sustainability panorama affords a strong alternative for recent considering and inclusive collaboration. Recognizing this, Salesforce, the World Financial Discussion board (WEF), and Deloitte got here collectively to co-found UpLink, a world initiative that identifies and accelerates revolutionary options aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Growth Targets (SDGs).
Over the previous 5 years, UpLink has advanced right into a vibrant international ecosystem — connecting early-stage innovators with the sources, experience, and networks they should increase their real-world influence. It’s an initiative Salesforce is proud to champion.
“UpLink’s mandate is to establish, assist, and develop those that are constructing worthwhile companies which are addressing the very issues that Salesforce holds as its values,” mentioned Steve Schwartz, Salesforce director and UpLink fellow.
An innovation engine for influence
UpLink isn’t only a digital software — it’s an open innovation engine that prompts international problem-solvers. By curated innovation challenges, entrepreneurs and changemakers are inspired to use with options aligned to the SDGs. These challenges are formed in collaboration with consultants and companions to highlight areas the place innovation can ship lasting, measurable progress.
Candidates submit breakthrough options, and people chosen as High Innovators obtain tailor-made assist to develop their influence. This consists of entry to a strong ecosystem of companions — traders, metropolis leaders, and mentors — who assist speed up their journey from early-stage concept to scalable, real-world answer.
Up to now, UpLink has launched greater than 60 challenges, supported greater than 500 early-stage ventures throughout 75 international locations, and contributed to the creation of over 19,000 jobs globally. Past employment, it has enabled tangible environmental and social outcomes — defending over 140 million hectares of pure habitat, treating 2.5 billion liters of wastewater, and advancing round economic system practices similar to the gathering of over 142,400 metric tons of waste.
Pioneering strategy to native influence: The Sure San Francisco mannequin
In 2023, UpLink launched its first location-based innovation problem: Sure San Francisco (Sure SF). Based mostly in Salesforce’s hometown of San Francisco, the purpose was easy: Convey daring sustainability options to the town and scale native improvements globally.
Backed by Salesforce, Deloitte, Citi, and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce — and with assist from the Metropolis of San Francisco — the inaugural problem championed 14 promising ventures targeted on city sustainability and inexperienced jobs. One standout, It’s Electrical, minimize its typical metropolis deployment time from over a yr to only 5 months, because of fast-tracked assist from the San Francisco Setting Division.
“It was our likelihood to check if place-based challenges may speed up deployment,” Schwartz mentioned. “And the reply was sure — resoundingly.”
This system’s success sparked a broader Sure Cities technique, with plans to copy the mannequin globally. Throughout San Francisco Local weather Week 2025, Sure SF named a second cohort of 12 high innovators chosen from greater than 200 candidates — many leveraging AI to resolve city sustainability challenges. 5 nonprofit startups additionally joined, supported by new grants and expanded sources.
With greater than 40 ventures now lively, Sure SF is proving that native innovation can create international influence. Leaders like Hydra Mendoza, Salesforce’s vice chairman of strategic relationships within the Workplace of the Chair and CEO, have performed a key function in aligning company sources with native priorities — making certain entrepreneurs are empowered to construct what their communities want most.
“Sure SF is a strong instance of what’s potential when the company neighborhood and civic leaders unite round visionary entrepreneurs which are constructing on the town’s basis of sustainable innovation,” Mendoza mentioned. “As a founding accomplice, Salesforce is proud to assist foster a brand new technology of ecopreneurs who’re utilizing cutting-edge know-how to ship sustainable influence proper right here in San Francisco and past.”
From supporter to strategic driver
As a founding accomplice, Salesforce has been central to UpLink’s development — not simply at launch, however in how innovation is recognized, supported, and scaled.
- Backing early-stage ventures: Salesforce has supported dozens of challenges, from nature-based options for carbon markets to sustainable aviation gasoline improvements—alongside Sure SF.
- Spotlighting innovation: UpLink High Innovators have taken heart stage at Dreamforce’s Dreampitch competitors and the World Financial Discussion board’s Annual Assembly in Davos.
- Doing enterprise and doing good: A standout success: Epic Cleantech, an UpLink alum, now filters 100% of the blackwater in Salesforce Tower—embedding innovation into Salesforce’s infrastructure.
- Launchpad entry: By Salesforce Launchpad, UpLink innovators obtain early entry to instruments and go-to-market assist. “It’s coming on the proper time,” Schwartz mentioned. “Execution infrastructure is simply as crucial as the concept.”
- Scalable tech: UpLink and the Discussion board are utilizing Salesforce applied sciences to energy the world’s most mission-critical engagements.
- Embedded management: As a Salesforce Fellow, Schwartz has spent two years embedded on the World Financial Discussion board, a uncommon secondment that displays the corporate’s hands-on strategy and dedication to its values.
Constructing an ecosystem of collaboration
Innovation thrives in connection, and UpLink helps construct the neighborhood that makes it potential. “We’re seeing extra partnerships and even joint go-to-market methods forming inside the UpLink community itself,” mentioned Schwartz. “That is what ecosystem constructing seems to be like — options that reinforce and speed up one another.”
The Sure SF headquarters, a downtown area supported by the Chamber of Commerce, now serves as a co-working hub, café, and convening floor for civic and startup leaders. As relationships deepen, innovators are collaborating throughout cohorts — sharing knowledge, aligning deployments, and coming into new markets collectively.
Wanting forward: The function of agentic AI
Agentic AI is right here — and it’s already altering the best way innovators design, measure, and scale options, providing game-changing potential for UpLink’s mission.
The alignment is evident: utilizing superior, accountable, and reliable AI to drive scalable influence.
“We’ve had AI-powered options in UpLink from the beginning,” Schwartz famous. “What’s modified is the vocabulary — and the consolation degree with these instruments. As they turn out to be extra accessible, they’ll take a entrance seat in how we design, measure, and deploy influence at scale.”
Agentic AI may speed up UpLink’s work by:
- Rushing answer improvement by way of autonomous prototyping and analysis.
- Enhancing influence measurement with real-time knowledge.
- Enhancing collaboration by intelligently matching innovators with stakeholders.
- Tackling advanced, system-level challenges with adaptive options.
A catalyst for the longer term
In a world in search of scalable, sustainable options, UpLink is greater than an initiative — it’s a blueprint for influence. Now marking its five-year anniversary, it has confirmed that with daring concepts, shared infrastructure, and deep collaboration, significant change is feasible.
“There have been folks engaged on these issues for a very long time,” mentioned Schwartz. “What UpLink affords is a system to assist them go additional, quicker — and with actual assist behind them.”
