Europe expansion takes Climb Global Solutions to new heights with $1.8bn in FY24

CRO Gerard Brophy breaks down the results, reveals plans for Saudi expansion and gets candid on $100m Citrix loss

Climb Global Solutions’ EMEA efforts are paying off significantly as the distributor delivers “record breaking” financial results for 2024.

Global revenues shot up 42 per cent to $1.8bn.

In EMEA, revenue billings surged 61 per cent.

This growth figure includes the DataSolutions acquisition at the end of 2023.

However, Climb’s European growth still rose 40 per cent excluding the DataSolutions impact, CRO Gerard Brophy tells CRN.

Brophy attributed Climb’s growth to M&A, its EMEA expansion and vendor roster.

“Looking at the global growth, we did the acquisition of DSS. They’re a very large distributor of primarily Adobe in the US,” Brophy says.

He reveals M&A is still a central part of Climb’s growth plans as the distie continues to search for deals in specific areas.

“The target for Climb is EMEA.

“We’re continuously looking at APAC as a huge growth area, as well as Saudi.

“But we can’t forget where is already working really well, which is DACH, France and Southern Europe.”

Regional expansion and potential M&A

Climb debuted in the DACH region in October and has since signed a raft of vendors in the area.

“The opportunity there is absolutely massive,” says Brophy.

“From a standing start, we’ve already built significant business in excess of $5m in no time.

“And then we've seen some good growth already this year in France. So we're very specific on the regions that we focused in on.”

The distie’s expansion continues, eyeing up brand new regions to enter.

“We are certainly looking at Saudi. That needs to be an area we look at.

“With Arrow pulling out of the ANZ market last year, that’s another area I’d like to Climb to be in.

“So, we're looking to either acquire or certainly start a business in that region.”

Revealing Climb’s timeline for these markets, Brophy says Climb’s entry will come as soon as it finds its country managers to spearhead operations in the regions.

“Quite frankly, as soon as I get the right candidates to come on board to represent Climb in the region we can launch.

“We've already secured a number of five to six key vendors that are willing to work with us in that area.”

Vendor roster

A chunk of Climb’s FY24 success comes down to “a handful of significant growth from specific vendors”, according to Brophy.

The most significant growth came from VAST Data, while globally the likes of Delinea and Sophos played key roles.

Brophy breaks down what Climb looks for in a vendor across seve.

“Number one is, what does the technology do? Is it relevant? Can we sell it into the channel and does the go-to-market make sense?

“Some vendors only dip their toe into the channel, and we’ve seen limited success when companies do it like that.

“When we see vendors really commit to a full two tier model, it helps us invest, it helps the resellers invest. And that's where we always see success.

“We evaluate a significant number of vendors. As an organisation, we evaluated 120 different vendors in 2024, but we only signed 13, and that's globally.

“We're quite specific on what vendors we want to bring into the Climb family.

“We are successful with vendors who have a true two tier model. They invest in us as well as we invest into them.”

Brophy is upfront that Climb experienced a major vendor hit in 2024 when Citrix decided to exit their deal.

“We lost Citrix as a vendor.

“When any business loses circa $100m in revenue, it's a big hole to fill.

“That is a challenge for us this year. We faced up to that, and it's just part of what we do in distribution.

“Vendors change their strategies and it's important for us to de-risk any big loss. But obviously, a loss of that size is quite influential to the business.”