Clydesdale Bank Invests in Relayware to Accelerate Growth & Expand Product Portfolio

30 October 2015

Clydesdale Bank today announced that it is investing in the fast-growing Relayware, a SaaS-based provider of Partner Relationship Management and Partnering Automation software. Clydesdale Bank’s £2.5 million funding package will accelerate the company’s growth with additional sales and marketing capacity and accelerate the development of its new partner performance applications.

Relayware’s SaaS technology enables enterprises to vastly improve how they communicate and collaborate with their various channel partners, whether they are value-added resellers (VAR), solutions providers, systems integrators (SI), managed service providers (MSP), agents or brokers. The company’s Partner Cloud platform and four partnering application bundles -- Partner Portal, Partner Sales, Partner Training and Partner Marketing -- automate the many processes required to manage a partner ecosystem. Relayware is currently developing a suite of powerful analytics and business insight capabilities into its platform to enable greater visibility into the influence of the channel across the enterprise.

Relayware’s customer portfolio includes many blue-chip enterprises with sophisticated channel operations, such as Tata Communications, Lenovo and Kaspersky Lab. The company also recently added GE Oil & Gas and Scott Safety, a division of Tyco, to its roster. Relayware is seeing tremendous uptake and business growth from hyper-growth, venture-backed companies, like Cumulus Networks, Nutanix and Adaptive Insights, who are looking to expand quickly into new markets, regions or industry segments.

Relayware serves its multi-national customer base from three offices: Oxford, UK; Jersey City, New Jersey and Redwood Shores, California.

The deal was delivered by Sandra Hope and Usman Ali from Clydesdale Bank’s Growth Finance team, a specialist UK-wide team that provides senior lending for innovative and rapidly expanding businesses with strong intellectual property assets and existing venture capital.

Relayware’s highly experienced management team is led by Chairman and CEO Robert Mann, who has held board positions with companies in the portfolios of 3i, Advent Ventures, Amadeus Capital, Alliance Trust and Scottish Equity Partners. Relayware Chief Financial Officer John von Benecke leads Relayware’s strategic business planning, M&A activities, IP protection and organisational performance and has more than a decade of experience with high-growth, VC-backed businesses in the high tech industry.

Von Benecke said: “With more than 70 percent of companies conducting business through channel partners and distributors, Relayware is well poised to exploit what many believe is a multi-billion dollar opportunity. Our award-winning Partner Cloud platform is already driving sales growth for many top brands, and by adding additional partner performance management capabilities, our customers will be able to easily show the true impact the channel has on their business.”

Sandra Hope, Director of Growth Finance at Clydesdale Bank, commented: “The efficient and effective management of channel partners is a major challenge for large organisations in today’s global marketplace. Relayware’s technology is already delivering results for leading companies across a variety of sectors, and the company has ambitious plans for further extending its reach and impact into key markets, particularly in the U.S.”

“We look forward to supporting them as they move into the next phase of development for the business.”