Pax8 Expands Cloud Marketplace to Europe, Will Benefit MSPs

Pax8 has launched its cloud marketplace in Europe.

The launch comes just one month after its acquisition of Netherlands-based Resello opened the door to Pax8 in the region.

Pax8’s Nick Heddy

Nick Heddy, CRO at Pax8 spoke exclusively to Channel Futures about the launch. He said the Pax8 cloud marketplace was built to simplify how managed service providers (MSPs) buy, sell and manage cloud.

2020 research by McKinsey shows that more than 75% of B2B buyers say that they prefer purchasing online to in-person interactions

“You’re seeing a shift in buyer behaviour,” said Heddy. “Two thirds of people are not reaching out to anybody until they have done enough research that they already know what they want. Seventy-three percent would rather do business with a marketplace instead of talking to a human. You’re seeing this shift in how people consumers want to buy and now that is reaching into B2B.”

Heddy said traditionally it could take days or weeks for MSPs to secure licenses across the average of seven different vendors. It’s “what used to be a painfully manual process of onboarding a new customer,” he said. “We’ve taken that exercise into inside of an hour [to] set up a whole tech stack and onboard a new customer.”

He said when Pax8 originally came to market as a cloud commerce marketplace, it was labelled as a cloud distributor. “We always thought of distribution as a legacy way of doing business. So we’re happy that the marketplace has become such a popular phrase these days. Because this is how we had always envisioned coming to market.”

Pax8 Acquisition ‘a Milestone’

Resello’s Harald Nuij

“What Nick described is something that we’ve also been sensing here in Europe,” said Resello managing director, Harald Nuij.

“We were already active in close to 40 European countries, helping MSPs to buy, sell and manage their cloud services. But with the technology from Pax8 kicking in, that’s a big milestone for us. It will make the lives of the MSPs even easier than it already was when using the Resello platform.”

Resello was Pax8’s third acquisition after securing $96 million in funding in December 2020.

The company also now owns Sea-Level Operations and Wirehive (which goes by Pax8 UK).

Nuij said Resello was “very happy” to leverage the vendor line card that Pax8 is bringing to the European market. “That is something we will be working on in the months ahead of us,” he said.

The exec said the firm is “welcoming all MSPs across the 40-odd countries in Europe reach out to us. I’m happy to say that there are no quotas or minimum commitments, or anything of that kind.”

Another Acquisition in the Cards?

Heddy also indicated another acquisition may be in Pax8’s future. He said the firm was on the hunt for a technology company, although it has “not found the perfect one yet.”

“We have a great platform today, but there are always ways that it can be better. We’re thinking about how to enable [partners]to provide a better customer experience. And there are lots of great companies who are popping up who focus on that. There’s also lots of great data and analytics companies out there … so to find and provide insights to an MSP who perhaps does not have a mature data practice. The ability to find those insights on their behalf and allow them to make better decisions for their organisation. I would say are the two key areas that we’re focusing on.”