Focus: Speciality software
Key vendors: 12,500 software and SaaS publishers including DocuSign, Quest, OpenText and ShareGate
Revenue: £294.5m (+43%)
Active reseller/MSP base: 2,585
This software distributor has rapidly grown its revenue runrate to $600m on the back of a string of 15 largely off-market EMEA acquisitions (including that of 45th-ranked Prianto).
The London-based outfit saw its top line pogo 43% to £294.5m in its year to 31 March 2025, according to numbers it split out for us.
It recently unveiled former Mimecast exec Tom Corrigan as its new CRO.
Characterising itself as a “software delivery platform”, QBS trades with 2,585 active partners, billing its smallest one just £28.69 per month, CEO Dave Stevinson told us (see Q&A below).
“We will grow by well in excess of 50% this year”
Quickfire Q&A with CEO Dave Stevinson
What’s your top priority over the next 12 months?
Embedding our new CRO and CCO into the business. We have invested in very high-quality leaders in our commercial C Suite, and it is my job to ensure they deliver absolute euphoria to our vendors and partners.
What’s the most under-rated facet of your business?
Our publisher engagement team, who act as a virtual extension of many of our publishers across the world. Our publishers write awesome code – we help them package and deliver it to the UK in style through the optimum partner network.
Name a vendor or technology area that’s been a hit for you in 2025
So many vendors have grown exponentially. Yet if I had to pick one that we are particularly excited about it would be Macrium, who have democratised cloud storage with their IOT solution.
Are you expecting to grow in this calendar year?
Absolutely. We will grow by well in excess of 50% this year through the careful fusion of double-digit organic growth with select acquisitions – and that is a fact.
3 of the 4 largest companies in this report have changed ownership in the last 12 months (or are about to). What does that say about the market?
It evidences that the smart money is buying these firms. The big will continue to get bigger and scale carries a premium.
How do you feel that one company featured in this report took out a full-page New York Times ad in March blasting the term ‘distributor’?
In my opinion, it was an assertion of individuality and a desire not to be tarnished with the low multiple of hardware distributors in the public markets. At QBS, we see ourselves as a software delivery platform helping both our publishers and partners sell better!
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