Malwarebytes promises resellers 80 per cent strike rate on demos

Anti-malware vendor claims its ploy to invest ahead of revenue in EMEA is beginning to bear fruit

Malwarebytes claims resellers that showcase its anti-malware wares will win up to eight out of 10 deals as it ploughs on with an aggressive EMEA expansion drive.

The US-based vendor only launched in EMEA at the start of 2015 but has already built up a team of 26 pre-sales, post-sales and inside sales staff in Cork, in line with its strategy to "invest ahead of revenue".

Fresh from scoring $50m (£35.7m) in new funding, Malwarebytes is now planning to move into new offices in Ireland's second city in April that can house up to 80 staff, as well as opening bases in the UK and the Middle East.

Anthony O'Mara, vice president of EMEA sales at Malwarebytes, told CRN the firm now generates half of its business from the enterprise market, despite its roots being in the consumer space.

"We operate using heuristics so we react very quickly when there's an outbreak and when it comes to zero-day we block everything within 24 hours," he said. "I think in any test, Malwarebytes would find more malware and remediate it faster than any other vendor at the moment."

Since touching down in Cork, Malwarebytes has enlisted 700 partners in EMEA, including 500 in the UK, but O'Mara stressed the vendor has "come to the market prepared".

"We knew there was no point coming to Europe unless we backed it up with pre- and post-sales support so we hired ahead of revenue. If we're going to win, we have to cover all the bases with resellers and end users to make sure they have confidence in us."

O'Mara added: "If we can do a demo to end users, 70 to 80 per cent of the time they will buy once they've seen what the product can do. The resellers have got something they can upsell straight away. We have pre-sales people available to run the demos in conjunction with the resellers."

Founded in 2004 by its Polish CEO when he was just 14, Malwarebytes is now based in San Jose and employs 250 staff in 14 countries and has 50,000 business customers.

Alongside Atlassian, an Australian software firm whose IPO in December reportedly created 100 millionaires, Malwarebytes is one of the few profitable tech start-ups, O'Mara (pictured) said.

"You hear about companies taking on investment because if they don't get it, they'll be in trouble. But Malwarebytes is self-sufficient in terms of funding. We've been generating positive cashflow for over 13 quarters and have been profitable for a long time," he said.

Despite moving beyond its roots in consumer security only four years ago, the firm now generates half of its business from the enterprise space, O'Mara said.

"When we exhibited at Infosec [Infosecurity Europe] last year, people knew who we were but saw us as a consumer brand and were mildly reluctant to carry the product. In the nine months since then, that has turned around and people are asking us whether they can sell the product," he said.