Who Will Win the AI Race? | Emergence Capital
Founding GP Gordon Ritter & Newly Promoted Partner Yaz El-Baba
Zoom to Salesforce: How Emergence Capital Picks Billion-Dollar Winners
Thrilled to share our interview with Founding GP Gordon Ritter & newly promoted Partner Yaz El-Baba of $2.3B AUM VC fund Emergence Capital. Aka legends. We cover everything from the state of VC, IPO window, Stargate, the macro environment, AI’s growth, the app layer to infrastructure, which Founders win the AI race, preventing the AI plateau, to Emergence’s history & evolution.
Oh, and Yaz’s hot take on 1-person billion-dollar AI companies. 👀
→ Listen on Spotify, YouTube, Apple
Emergence Capital is a venture capital firm known for its specialization in early-stage investments in enterprise cloud software companies. The firm's focus is on businesses that leverage technology to improve workplace productivity, business outcomes, and the customer experience. Emergence is widely regarded as a pioneer in the SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) space and has backed some of the most successful companies in the category, such as Salesforce, Veeva, Box, Yammer, Bill.com, Zoom, Blend, and Doximity.
Founded in 2003, Emergence Capital operates with a philosophy of fostering long-term partnerships with entrepreneurs and helping them build world-class companies.. this has shaped out to:
Stats:
$450B+ Market Cap of Portfolio (current and former)
$2.3B AUM
Six (VI) Funds
100+ Portfolio Companies
20 Exits and Private Valuations Greater than $500 Million
Notable Investments:
Salesforce (CRM) software giant: $328B
Veeva Systems (VEEV) cloud solutions for life sciences): $38B
Zoom (ZM) video conferencing leader: $27B
Doximity (DOCS) workflow tools for clinicians: $11B
Market caps as of January 30th, 2025
Fresh Funding:
Yaz & Gordon’s recent $40M Series B investment: Bland
Bland, the hyper-realistic conversational AI platform, sounds human, speaks any language, and works 24/7.
Bland makes defining and directing voice experiences easy. Design pathways—map conversations, set flows, and automate millions of calls, 24/7. Customize your agent’s personality, choose or clone voices, add languages, and let Bland adapt like a top employee on every call. Voice tech is hard—Bland makes it simple.
→ Watch their announcement clip:
→ Read their thesis on Bland
More on Gordon & Yaz’s track records, Emergence’s portfolio & theses, and extras below.
Timestamps:
0:00 - Welcome Yaz & Gordon!
1:20 - Current State of VC
6:45 - Emergence's IPOs, Salesforce, Zoom, Bill.com
10:00 - Veeva $37B story
18:10 - Stargate $500B Investment In AI
29:50 - Well Satya, Is SAAS Dead?!
32:30 - Together AI
38:40 - Which Founders Will Win Today?
41:00 - The AI Plateau
58:00 - How Marc Benioff Helped Start Emergence
1:13:40 - Bland Investment Announcement
1:16:00 - 1 Deal That You Regret
1:17:50 - Yaz & Gordon's 2025 Outlooks
Founder + General Partner, Gordon Ritter
“The right focus is the constant that achieves unimaginable goals.”
Gordon Ritter is one of the Founding General Partners of Emergence Capital. He is a prominent figure in the venture capital industry, particularly known for his role in shaping the SaaS revolution. Gordon has been instrumental in identifying and supporting transformative enterprise software companies that have gone on to achieve massive success.
Career Highlights:
Salesforce: Early investor and board member, helping guide the company to become a global SaaS leader. Gordon shares more details on the pod.