Agari, the cloud-native email security vendor, has increased its investment in the channel by launching a new partner program for VARs and appointing two key channel executives.

Mandeep Khera, formerly ValiMail’s chief marketing officer, joins Agari as head of worldwide channel marketing, and Tracy Pallas, formerly Illusive Networks’ vice president of worldwide channel sales, joins the company as head of worldwide channel sales.

Agari’s Mandeep Khera

Khera will be responsible for developing Agari’s global channel marketing strategy and channel enablement as it continues its global expansion. Pallas will be responsible for developing alliances with key channel partners to foster worldwide channel sales.

Armen Najarian, Agari’s chief marketing officer, tells Channel Partners this is the formal launch of his company’s first tiered partner program, which will offer increasing benefits to committed partners.

“Agari already counts more than 70 channel partners worldwide, but we have a goal to increase that by at least 50 percent by the end of the year,” he said. “Agari is significantly increasing its channel investment with the launch of the [partner] program and our expansion of the channel management team.

Agari’s Tracy Pallas

Agari has been experiencing “tremendous momentum” in 2018, including an OEM partnership with Cisco and a $40 million investment led by Goldman Sachs, Najarian said.

“Our revenues have dramatically increased in the first six months of 2018, but we are committed to growing them by many multiples,” he said. “Currently less than half of our revenue comes from the channel, but our goal is to have the majority of revenues generated by channels.”

The Agari Email Trust platform is a fully automated email security offering powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

“The Agari Partner Program offers three tiers of benefits for qualified channel partners willing to commit the appropriate resources to Agari,” said Steve Bell, Agari’s vice president of sales. “We expect about 10-20 percent of our channel partners will reach the highest level, elite, which includes dedicated account support, executive sponsorship, and the greatest product discounts. But there will be resources available for all of our partners, including product discounts, training and other tools like a web portal. We want our partners to feel integrated with Agari; we’re even planning to involve them in our sales kickoff events.”

“Email security has become an integral aspect of our solution offerings as our customers have grown increasingly savvy to the risk of sophisticated email attacks, such as phishing, account takeover and business email compromise,” said Joe Luciano, CEO of AccessIT Group. “Working with Agari has enabled us to exceed our customer’s expectations by delivering the industry’s only automated advanced email security solution. The new program will provide us an outstanding platform to enhance our productivity and bring significantly more opportunities for both companies.”