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Beyond Now and Azul expanding channel options
Vendors outline benefits of fresh ownership and acquisition to generate increased opportunities for partners
M&A activity has the potential to benefit the channel, and partners working with Beyond Now and Azul will be hoping their latest moves will result in increased opportunities.
Beyond Now has indicated it is planning to use a majority investment from private equity player Bregal Milestone to bolster its channel offerings.
The artificial intelligence (AI)-based ecosystem orchestration and digital platform provider has secured the backing of the financial specialist as it starts a fresh chapter after moving from its management buyout, which had been backed by a group of investors, sealed after divesting from BearingPoint in November 2021.
The arrival of a fresh backer will provide Beyond Now with a range of options, which include supporting global expansion, funding more product innovation and strengthening the support for partners.
That increased support should include expanding its ecosystem and marketplace options for those in the channel selling AI, cloud, security 5G and edge. The business also plans to increase support for CSPs co-creating B2B and B2B2X offerings with partners.
“Beyond Now was founded on the belief that the future of digital commerce lies in ecosystems – a broader mix of partners and greater opportunities,” said Angus Ward, CEO of Beyond Now.
“We pioneered digital platform business models, with our ecosystem orchestration capabilities and marketplace platform, while continuing to disrupt the traditional BSS market, helping telcos and technology customers create and monetise new partner offerings.”
Growth potential
Cyrus Shey, managing partner at Bregal Milestone, said it had identified growth potential in the market and saw increased opportunities for Beyond Now. “The telecom and enterprise software space is going through a transformative shift, moving away from legacy monolithic systems towards cloud-native, modular and AI-enabled solutions,” he said.
“As customers look for new ways to unlock revenue through B2B and B2B2X marketplaces, we have great confidence in Beyond Now’s portfolio, strategic direction and management team to capture this market opportunity,” added Shey.
Over at Azul, the Java specialist has acquired Payara, a global provider of solutions for Jakarta EE (Java EE)-based applications. The move comes just a few weeks after the firm gained a majority investment from Thoma Bravo.
Speaking to MicroScope last month, Simon Taylor, global vice-president of partners at Azul, said it had plans to expand the business following the private equity investment. It has been a couple of weeks since that conversation, and the business has added Payara to arm its channel with a wider portfolio of services to pitch to customers.
“This strategic acquisition is further testament to Azul’s commitment to support the needs of our global enterprise customer base,” said Scott Sellers, co-founder and CEO of Azul. “Payara delivers proven products that are naturally synergistic with our existing offerings and brings additional deep technical expertise to the world’s largest independent Java engineering team.“
In response, Steve Millidge, founder and CEO at Payara. said it had worked with Azul and that the tie-up was the next step in that relationship.
“After a strong and long-standing partnership with Azul, combining forces is the natural next step and positions us for accelerated growth,” he said. “Together, we will strengthen mission-critical solutions for enterprise Java customers, and deliver greater performance, security and innovation across the Java ecosystem.”
