Distology, the Stockport-based specialist IT cybersecurity distributor, is today announcing that it has acquired Squareball. Based in Berlin, Germany, Squareball specialises in software engineering, product design, solution architecture and identity access management (IAM) consultancy.
Already working with two of Distology’s core vendors, Okta and Auth0, the new partnership will naturally bolster Distology’s European proposition thanks to Squareball’s recognised excellence in design and implementation of IAM/CIAM solutions. The highly skilled Squareball team offer proven methodologies, which ensure the customer is at the forefront. In today’s digital world, Squareball’s core attributes help to bring Distology even closer to customer expectations – a highly valuable proposition for partners across Europe.
As well as strengthening the business, the acquisition will allow Distology to reach a broader and more diverse pool of partners across Europe by building a channel-focused distribution sales team in Berlin. It will also give Distology the chance to support Squareball in achieving its long-term vision in product and identity engineering on a broader scale.
What’s more, the product development services which Squareball offers will help Distology to continue its disruptive march in the market – developing software products which bring greater excellence to identity consulting and vice versa.
The acquisition follows a period of growth for the channel-focused cybersecurity specialist, having increased its revenues by more than 75% over the past three years while also gaining private equity investment from NorthEdge Capital in 2021. In November 2021, Distology opened a new office in the Netherlands, meaning the acquisition of Squareball will be Distology’s third European office.
“When we started our acquisition journey, we were recommended Squareball by one of our vendors and as soon as I met with Martyn, CEO and founder, his passion for the business was clear. The acquisition is a big step for both businesses and I truly believe this collaboration will enable us to provide additional high-quality services for our partners and their customers across Europe. It’ll also help us to expand our reach and support even more organisations to protect their digital estates from the growing threat of cyber-attacks through a deep understanding of product engineering, while educating organisations on the part identity and access management plays at the core of zero trust architecture”.
“We’re really excited to see the impact the amalgamation of skills and expertise has across both teams and what that will bring to our business, our vendors and our channel partners. We look forward to welcoming the Squareball team into the Distology family,” comments Hayley Roberts, Distology CEO.
Established five years ago, Squareball started as a consultancy which brought together UX and engineering to offer organisations dedicated teams who design, build and launch digital products.
“Since starting Squareball in 2017, we’ve been able to establish our position in the market as experts in software engineering with emphasis on identity and access management. Now is the perfect time for us to join forces with Distology, a reputable channel-focused cybersecurity specialist and distributor who has an extensive, yet hand-picked roster of partners, to double down on delivery and grow. We’re excited to be able to join a well-known, passionate and highly skilled team to grow our business and broaden visibility, and also amplify the skills we have here in Berlin,” adds Martyn Roberts, CEO and founder of Squareball.
“We’ve always set out to be Europe’s leading value-added-distributor, and over the last 12 months we’ve made huge strides in the right direction to really cement ourselves as a true value partner to both new and established vendors. Expanding into the DACH region has always been part of the business strategy, so it’s exciting to see these plans come to life with such a superb leader in Martyn and his equally brilliant team of people at Squareball,” concludes Hayley.
Claire Newmarch
07548 83472
Distology is an award-winning, passionate and highly knowledgeable cybersecurity distributor, representing leading and emerging vendors and supporting an extensive network of IT resellers, solution providers, and service providers across the EMEA region. We believe in the power of people as well as technology, with culture and customer service playing a pivotal role in our business approach, alongside leading security products and services.
Our work and approach to business has seen us take home multiple coveted awards including CRN’s 2020 Technical Employee of the Year at the Women in Channel Awards, which we continue to be recognised for as a result of our focus on diversity and gender parity. In addition, CRN named Distology its 2020 Cloud Distributor of Year and 2019 Distributor of the Year sub £250m.
Our ethos is based on collaboration, trust and transparency. Our passionate and energetic workforce acts as an extension of the vendors we represent, as well as the resellers, solution/service providers that we partner with. We invest heavily to ensure the knowledge and technical expertise we offer is on par with vendors’ own in-house teams.
The vendors we work with represent market leading, cutting-edge technology that enables our resellers to provide the most innovative and latest cybersecurity solutions.