CHANNEL PARTNERS CONFERENCE & EXPO/MSP SUMMIT, LAS VEGAS — Pax8 (a signature MSP Summit sponsor) says its valuation now totals $1.7 billion thanks to a fresh round of equity funding.

On Monday, the cloud marketplace distributor said it has raised $185 million from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, a new investor. Pax8 last secured $96 million in January 2021 following its acquisition of Wirehive.

Other firms contributing to Pax8’s $185 million in equity funding include existing investors Catalyst Investors, Sageview Capital, Blue Cloud Ventures and Liberty Global Ventures.

Pax8’s John Street

Pax8 targets SMBs through its managed service providers (the company says it has 20,000 of those partners). As such, “the new investment will provide capital to accelerate innovation and continued expansion into new global markets,” said John Street, CEO of Pax8.

Pax8 already has embarked on building its European footprint through the 2021 purchases of Wirehive and Resello. This latest round of equity funding will continue to fuel that trajectory.

“Year over year, we continue to experience record-breaking growth, and we look forward to working with SoftBank to continue elevating our performance,” Street said. In August 2021, Channel Futures noted Pax8’s growth at 2,558% over three years.

To that point, Nagraj Kashyap, managing partner at SoftBank, said Pax8 “has disrupted the IT industry, exemplified courage through innovation, and has built the people, processes and technology to revolutionize the way businesses build and consume technology.”

The transaction calls for Kristin Bannon, investment director at SoftBank Investment Advisers, to join Pax8’s board of directors.

SoftBank’s Kristin Bannon

“Through its marketplace, Pax8 is empowering SMBs with technology solutions they would otherwise not have access to while simultaneously granting software vendors distribution capabilities to a hard-to-reach customer segment,” Bannon said. “I am thrilled to join the Pax8 board and partner with the company on its hyper-growth technology strategy for the platform and cloud marketplace, and new opportunities for the company and its ecosystem of partners.”

The Promise SoftBank Sees in Pax8

SoftBank Vision Fund 2 also extends equity funding to companies across sectors including consumer, enterprise and education technology. The firm holds more than $100 billion in capital.

Certainly taking a risk on a cloud company isn’t such a big risk. The cloud marketplace opportunity, in particular, is hot. As of mid-last year, 63% of business in the United States went through a cloud marketplace such as Pax8, Ingram Micro Cloud, Salesforce App Exchange and others. This only bodes well for the channel.

One of the ways cloud marketplaces give the channel a boost is in the ability to provision branded self-service resources for customers. This way, they get to keep their company names in front of clients and handle more projects for those customers.