File-sharing ace Brainloop launches UK partner quest

The UK's finance industry was a driving force behind the German file sharing vendor's expansion

German enterprise file-sharing vendor Brainloop is on the hunt for its first UK resellers after the lure of London's financial district prompted it to launch a local office here.

The Munich-headquartered vendor, which was founded in 2000 and offers services such as secure collaboration, enterprise file share and sync, real estate portfolio management and pharmaceutical out-licensing, is aiming to sign up 15 partners in the initial phase, as it establishes itself in the market.

Mark Edge, UK managing director at Brainloop, said the fact the UK is the "financial hub of Europe" played a major factor in the decision to expand, as its services are used heavily within the finance industry.

Edge was brought into the company in September 2014, converting the contracted team Brainloop had in the UK initially into a full-time channel-based operation housed in London.

Of Brainloop's €50m (£35.4m) in targeted revenues in 2015, Edge says he is hoping for 15 to 20 per cent of that to come from this new operation in the UK, run by a current team of seven.

Less than 50 per cent of UK companies have a digital solution when it comes to file sharing, and are still printing out hard copies on paper, spending up to £40,000, Edge claimed.

Partners will be able to offer a four- to six-month ROI with Brainloop's digital solution, he added.

"When you look at the individual business solutions we provide, we have our competitors, but when you look at it more holistically, there is no one that really offers all that. Everybody from end-point backup, to cloud storage, to file transfer are all putting lipstick on a pig and dressing up their solution as enterprise file sharing."

"You will see several hundred of those Dropbox vendors vaporising or being acquired over the coming years," he said.

Brainloop is looking to sign up at least one distributor and will sell indirect in all but rare instances, Edge added.

"The only time we will go direct is if there isn't a partner that can handle it."