Elastica stretches into channel

New-kid-on-the-block claims cloud application security market is "exploding" as it hunts 15-20 UK partners

Cloud security vendor Elastica is looking to exploit what it claims is an untapped market that is "ready to explode", as it seeks out UK partners.

Founded in 2012, Elastica delivers visibility and control within cloud applications by using a data science engine to classify content in order to secure it, and claims to provide deeper control for its users than its rivals.

Alex Raistrick, who recently left Palo Alto Networks to join Elastica as sales director, predicted that the cloud access security market will "explode" as the SaaS market continues to grow.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Elastica is operating a channel-only sales model, and Raistrick said the company's commitment to the channel is key to its strategy.

"There is a real issue in some vendors that they have a diminished view of the channel or they don't trust it. Particularly with established vendors they tend to dismiss the channel as a necessary evil but as far as we are concerned we are 100 per cent focused on the channel and if we don't invest in our partners, they won't invest in us."

Elastica came out of stealth mode in February 2014 and has established EMEA offices in Belgium and London.

Raistrick said the firm, which has already signed up five UK partners including resellers, MSPs and systems integrators, is hoping to recruit between 15 and 20 UK partners over the next few months and is aiming to take on 100 enterprise customers in the UK by the end of 2015.

"I want our partners to be initially going out finding end users and delivering the message. Ultimately we want them to become self-sufficient so they can generate themselves more revenue and make our business grow. Their job now is to go out and find opportunity, work with us and build some consultancy services around what we do," he said.

Raistrick added that he would like to see his partners delivering £500,000 worth of business per year, at good margins by the end of 2015.

The company is in talks with an unnamed distributor to be its sole UK distributor for the time being and is also looking to partner with the it in other countries as it expands across the major European markets.

Elastica was funded by venture capital with investment from Mayfield Fund but Raistrick said the backer is not very active in the running of the company.

Raistrick said the company has a "fairly basic" channel programme that is very fair and offers partners good discounts.