‘We’ve always talked about building out Germany and France and continuing to grow our European presence. This gives us another base to expand from,’ says Climb Global Solutions CEO Dale Foster.
Climb Global Solutions CEO Dale Foster is looking toward the company’s next phase of growth after acquiring Interworks.cloud, a Greek cloud distributor, in a bid to strengthen its cloud marketplace platform.
“This fills a gap we’ve had for a couple of years,” Foster told CRN in an interview. “We’ve been honest internally that our cloud marketplace platform hasn’t been where it needs to be to compete with the biggest distributors or the born-in-the-cloud players. Interworks has already built that.
“They run everything through a marketplace,” he added. “It’s not the traditional distribution model of constant quoting and transactions. Their focus is onboarding MSPs to the platform, enabling them and helping them grow over time.”
That approach is increasingly important, he said, as cloud marketplaces become central to how partners buy and manage services from vendors like Microsoft.
“If you’re going to have a cloud platform or marketplace strategy, the cornerstone really has to be Microsoft,” he said. “That’s where most of the applications start, and partners want a place where they can get Microsoft and everything that connects to it.”
Climb Global Solutions last month reported mixed earnings that included net sales that increased 20 percent year over year to $193.8 million, however, net income remained flat at $7 million. On an adjusted basis, profitability declined compared with the same period a year earlier. Adjusted net income was $7.0 million, down from $10.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, and adjusted EBITDA also fell to $13 million, compared with $16.1 million a year earlier. Gross billings increased 18 percent to about $2.1 billion, reflecting strong demand for the company’s vendor portfolio and channel programs.
Foster said the Interworks acquisition will build on that momentum while modernizing Climb’s go-to-market model. The acquisition, which is valued at about $9.4 million and was announced Feb. 24, added more than 600 MSPs to Climb’s ecosystem and deepens relationships with vendors including Microsoft, Acronis, Google, NinjaOne and Nord Security.
Foster did deliver on his promise he made in 2024 of reaching $2 billion in revenue by 2026, “We did almost $2.2 [billion],” he said.
[Related: Climb Channel Solutions Eyes $2B Milestone Amid Global Expansion, Leadership Shift]
The Interworks.cloud deal expands the Eatontown, N.J.-based company’s presence in southeastern Europe, including Cyprus and Malta, and allows it to extend its services and technical capabilities to Interworks’ partner based as they move into AI workloads and cloud infrastructure.
“A lot of partners might be selling Microsoft 365 but not really doing much yet with AI or Azure,” Foster said. “We have the technical teams that can help them move into those areas.”
The deal comes as Climb continues to invest heavily in international growth. Foster said the company sees Europe as a major opportunity both through acquisitions and organic expansion.
“We’ve always talked about building out Germany and France and continuing to grow our European presence,” he said. “This gives us another base to expand from.”
