Partner Trends #009
Your weekly source for news in the world of channel partners, strategic alliances, and partnerships.
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Around the Industry
Mailchimp has acquired Chatitive, a startup that helps businesses leverage mobile messaging to connect with their customers and drive revenue. When combined with the Mailchimp platform, the new offering will give small business customers the ability to share time-sensitive information such as transactional and promotional messaging to their customers.
Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, has acquired StreetCred, a startup building a blockchain-based platform for location data, as part of its strategy to enhance its Snap Map offering. Snap Map allows users to view public snaps from a given area and share their location with friends. StreetCred’s location platform collects and inventory location data by allowing users to be compensated with crypto tokens for sharing their verified location data. StreetCred is just starting to test the system, so it’s not clear how their technology will be incorporated into Snap’s business.
Red Hat announced an agreement to acquire StackRox, a container and Kubernetes-native security leader, to bolster its OpenShift enterprise platform. The deal is part of Red Hat’s strategy to deliver a holistic platform that enables customers to build, deploy, and securely run nearly any application across hybrid cloud environments. The acquisition is expected to complete during the first quarter of 2021.
Coinbase has acquired Routefire, a crypto trade execution startup, to expand the exchange’s prime brokerage business. Routefire’s technology helps institutional customers fill large orders at high speeds and lower fees. They will no longer support the Routefire platform and focus their efforts on developing Coinbase’s suite of institutional products.
Partner Program Announcements
Akamai Technologies announced an update to the Akamai Partner Program that expands its existing channel partner program by providing greater flexibility, support, and financial incentives. The updates include new certification levels with additional training options and pricing incentives, role-based mentoring by Akamai experts for Advanced Partners, and greater alignment on engagement based on partner type. Existing partners will migrate into the new program over a six-month period.
SADA Systems announced the launch of its SADA SaaS Alliance Program to help companies launch their products and grow using Google Cloud. The new program will offer partners support with go-to-market strategies, account mapping, whiteboard sessions, training, and access to marketing and sales enablement resources.
Intel has unified its existing ecosystem of partner programs such as Intel Technology Provider, Intel IoT Solutions Alliance, and Intel Cloud Insider under its new Intel Partner Alliance offering. The new program offers a redesigned portal that incorporates Intel Partner University and Intel Solutions Marketplace into one platform to help partners find the content they need. Elements of the new Intel Partner Alliance include new partner types, personalized experiences, program rewards, and new resources to connect partners and new customers.
Spirion, a pioneer in data protection and compliance, announced the launch of its Customer Marketplace. Following the launch of its Global Alliance Partner Program recently, the Customer Marketplace will be an online hub for third-party data products and information. Customers will be able to access solutions such as templated use cases, application integrations with third-party providers, custom report templates, playbooks for privacy workflow processes, and sensitive data definitions. At launch, more than 50 solutions will be available.
Partnership Announcements
Walmart announced the creation of a new fintech startup as part of a strategic partnership with fintech investment firm Ribbit Capital. The new venture will combine Walmart’s retail expertise and scale with Ribbit’s fintech experience to deliver financial experiences to offer modern, innovative, and affordable financial solutions to Walmart’s customers and associates.
Panasonic Automotive has partnered with Envisics, a holographic technology startup, and Phair, developers of spatial-AI navigation, to develop and commercialize a new generation of head-up displays for cars, trucks, and SUVs. The new augmented reality heads-up displays will combine artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the driver experience to identify and prioritize driver surroundings sharply. Mass production of vehicles using its technology is slated for 2023.
ADROSONIC, a digital consulting firm, has entered into a partnership with INSTANDA, the insurance industry’s first low-code business platform, to accelerate the insurance industry's ongoing digital transformation. The new offering will allow insurers to innovate new digital products to meet customer demands without the dependence on legacy IT systems.
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