AppDirect to Buy IT Asset Management Platform Firstbase

AppDirect is adding a technology management capability to its platform through the acquisition of Firstbase.

The B2B commerce platform and marketplace provider isn't saying how much it's paying for Firstbase, an acquisition it announced on Tuesday. AppDirect's venture capital investors include Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins.

Firstbase's platform provides global asset tracking and management. These capabilities will integrate into the AppDirect platform next to its subscription commerce functions, making the platform a place where technology advisors can both buy and manage their telecom, IT and software. Customers can only access the offering through technology advisors, AppDirect said.

AppDirect's Nicolas Desmarais

“We are committed to providing the advisor community with a platform that supports all of the technology and business opportunities they use to support their end customers," AppDirect chairman and CEO Nicolas Desmarais said. "Advisor success is our success, and delivering additional solutions, like Firstbase’s IT asset management platform, around all of their technology needs will not only increase advisors’ sales success, it will simplify the life of the IT departments they serve.”

Some of AppDirect's recent acquisitions have focused on visualizing and managing the technology life cycle. The company bought ADCom last year to introduce a white-labeled managed network services offering. More recently, it announced the purchase of life cycle management provider vCom.

Related:AppDirect Buying vCom, Boosting Life Cycle Management

What Is Firstbase?

Chris Herd and Trey Bastian founded Firsbase in 2019. The New York- and U.K.-headquartered company pivoted early from a fintech focus to tackling pain points in equipment infrastructure management; namely, the process of outfitting business locations with technology and retrieving assets cost too much and took too much time.

The company has raised multiple funding rounds, including one for $50 million in 2022.

Firstbase's Chris Herd

Now the company hopes to scale its go-to-market through AppDirect's community of technology advisors, Herd said.

“AppDirect’s vision to build the B2B-everything platform fits perfectly with ours at Firstbase. Together, we can solve all the major problems the biggest companies and most innovative CIOs face across both software and hardware,” Herd said. “Firstbase already solves IT asset management complexity for the world’s fastest growing companies by simplifying complicated procurement processes. AppDirect’s advisor channel has the potential to massively accelerate our GTM. We couldn’t be more excited.”

Related:Why AppDirect Spun Out the ADCom Partner Business

AppDirect in the mean time "remains acquisitive" and will look to add more suppliers and platform functions, it said.