Distology lands in Germany with first acquisition

Distributor acquires Berlin-based software consultancy Squareball as CEO Hayley Roberts says she wants to create a ‘top five’ value-added distributor in Germany within three years

Cybersecurity distributor Distology has acquired German software consultancy Squareball, its first-ever acquisition.

Based in Berlin, Okta and Auth0 partner Squareball was founded in 2017. It started as a digital products consultancy and now claims to specialise in software engineering, product design, solution architecture and identity access management.

For UK-based Distology, the deal marks its first expansion into Germany and its third European office after opening a new location in the Netherlands last year.

Speaking to CRN, Roberts said Squareball is a different kind of business to Distology and described the firm as a "very credible services practice" that will add new technical capabilities to the distributor.

"We thought that, rather than trying to find another distributor that's doing what we're doing in the UK and then trying to retrofit our culture onto them, why not actually find a technical services business that services the areas that we operate in, being identity access management and security?," she said.

"Because, ultimately, the hardest thing to build is your technical resource. So I thought ‘why not start with a technical resource first?', especially as we're growing our services offering in the UK and across Europe. And then we can build in the commercial team afterwards."

Roberts said that she plans to build a sales team around the Squareball business in Berlin and will begin onboarding vendors that it works with in the UK and the Netherlands.

She said she aims to build up Distology to be a "top five" value-added distributor in the German market within the next three years.

"We want parity with the vendor stack that we're working with in the UK across to Germany and the Netherlands but also to attract new vendors into our commercial stack there too. It's going to be a slower build, but we want to do it right. We're not here to do a big land grab, be aggressive and get out there; this is about how we worked in the UK to grow steadily and slowly but also fully backing the vendors that we serve."

Squareball CEO and founder Martyn Roberts will stay on with Distology in a new role as European services director.

"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," he said.

Distology received private equity investment from NorthEdge Capital in 2021. The distributor ranked #28 in CRN's latest distributor rankings with revenues of £40m, up 74 per cent on the previous year.