$10 million in Series A funding has been successfully secured by Clazar, an innovative startup that helps Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) scale their sales using key cloud platforms including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This brings Clazar’s total raised funds to $14 million since its establishment in 2023.
With cloud marketplaces expected to support $45 billion in sales of third-party software by 2025, up 84% CAGR over five years, according to Canalys, their strategic significance is becoming more and more clear. These platforms would offer GTM (Go-To-Market) teams a rare chance to connect with clients who are already prepared to make an investment in new technologies by fusing the convenience of online purchases with the discipline of traditional sales channels.
The ability to access a huge $340 billion in committed buyer spending across the major cloud service providers is what makes cloud markets so appealing to ISVs. According to Clazar, using cloud marketplaces to channel these current financial commitments can expedite budgeting procedures and save sales cycles by up to 40%. Additionally, transactions completed through these channels would typically have a 27% higher chance of closing and can be up to 80% larger. Clazar claims that these advanced GTM techniques can be highly effective, accounting for as much as 20% of overall revenue.
The Cloud GTM Journey
Notwithstanding these benefits, the road to a successful marketplace integration would be paved with obstacles. These include the requirement for continuous registration, regular updates to listings, upholding compatibility with cloud partner portals, and efficient use of CRM systems for co-selling campaigns.
Through the provision of a comprehensive solution that expedites the setup process and improves the effectiveness of software suppliers' revenue-generating operations inside the cloud ecosystem, Clazar's platform seeks to reduce these complications. Clazar's ability to help ISVs negotiate this changing environment could become increasingly important for companies trying to take advantage of this growing market potential as cloud marketplaces continue to develop and grow.
“There has historically been a barrier to entry because the engineering work and resources needed to get started on cloud marketplaces have been costly, even for enterprises, and frequently prohibitive for startups and smaller businesses,” said Clazar’s CEO and co-founder Trunal Bhanse. “However, the channel is becoming more and more important for success. Clazar delivers an intuitive, automatic, end-to-end solution across all major cloud markets that keeps up with the continual changes happening in the ecosystem, regardless of a company’s stage or location in its cloud GTM journey. The way software is purchased and sold is going through a generational change, and Clazar is propelling the entire sector ahead. We are excited to use this Series A money and appreciative of our forward-thinking investors.”
Mr. Bhanse saw firsthand the challenges and complexity of managing cloud marketplace operations when he led an in-house team of engineers to build and manage it. Building on this experience, he and CTO and co-founder Aayush Bahuguna launched Clazar. Both Bhanse and Bahuguna have a significant history of creating high-impact solutions at Facebook, Zenefits, and LinkedIn. They developed their profound expertise in creating full-lifecycle marketplace and infrastructure products at AirBnB.
“We aim to democratize cloud GTM access for software businesses by automating the ‘opportunity to cash’ lifecycle of every deal,” said Aayush Bahuguna, CTO and Co-founder of Clazar. “Straight from product discovery through a public presence on the hyperscaler marketplaces to the SalesOps and transaction orchestration that make a deal happen.”
