Application platform integration management company, Mashery, is making a big play into the APAC channel.
A startup back in 2006, in 2013 Mashery was acquired by Intel for over $180 million, as part of its pursuit of the emerging Internet of things (IoT) space.
Mashery customer success executive, Boaz Maor, explained the reason behind Intel’s thinking.
“If you are a $US60 billion dollar company with 90 per cent market share in a business that doesn’t grow very fast, you have to look for revenue elsewhere,” he said.
“IoT will arguably be bigger than computing on its own, it’s a massive area. To go after it, they wanted some combination of hardware, software and services, not just chips.
“We are a big part of that so we have a number of initiatives supporting Intel teams who are going after the IoT, while we are also working on the core business, which is a very small one in the $US60 billion dollar scheme of things at Intel.”
At the heart of this IoT play is Mashery’s API management platform. The business has been operating on Australian shores for four years with its Asia Pacific and Japan headquarters in Melbourne. It has had some success so far with a direct model, attaining clients like MYOB and Sensis.
However, the company feels it has reached a tipping point and is now in need of help from the channel.
Mashery director of strategy and business development, Jason Cormier, explained that the market is more attuned to its value proposition than it was four years ago.
“Now the market has matured, and more and more companies are ready to talk about APIs, everyone is recognising the value,” he said.
“That’s the value proposition for channel partners, we are really good at what we do because we specialise in API management, there are others out there that offer IoT solutions as-a-service but no one is dedicated to it like we are and our SaaS solution is pretty unique.”
Mashery has yet to appoint a local distributor and the company has only one partner, systems integrator, Nexright. Intel will play a big role in the development of the IoT business but it is to the channel that Mashery is looking to expand the API side of the business.
