Flare’s solution “sells itself”, its EMEA VP has asserted as the dark web monitoring specialist unveiled Distology as its first EMEA distributor.
Founded in 2017, Montreal-based Flare is growing at triple digits, and scored $30m in Series B funding in December.
The channel-driven outfit is now ploughing some of that cash into its UK and European expansion via new VAD ally, Distology.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, recently appointed VP of EMEA and Global Alliances Andrew Bartlam said Flare is offering VAR and MSSP partners access to a high-growth market.
“People talk about two buzz areas right now – one is AI and the other is dark web,” he said.
“Flare does both. It’s a threat intelligence and dark web monitoring solution that also uses AI to summarise and contextualise really complex cyber-criminal activities.”
Drawn to Distology
Distology’s exclusive focus on cybersecurity, as well as its reach beyond the UK into DACH, Benelux and the Nordics, made it a natural ally for Flare, Bartlam said.
“Resellers have many vendors banging on their door every five seconds saying, “we’ve got the next best thing”. Distology has mindshare with a network of high-quality resellers, VARs and MSSPs, and they can bring that mindshare to bear with Flare,” he added.
“While we’re their first dark web monitoring and threat intelligence company, they do have some very complementary solutions in identity, which is an area we’re moving into, in a complementary manner.
“Distology has great reseller and geographic coverage, but they’re also agile and dynamic, and have a real focus on cybersecurity. It was a natural win-win to partner.”
“High-growth area”
The dark web intelligence market is set to grow to $2.9bn by 2032, up from $520m in 2023, some market watchers believe.
While many cybersecurity vendors are preoccupied with “keeping bad things and people outside of the perimeter”, Flare in contrast “tells you when things have already got out and how to mitigate against the damage they can do,” Bartlam explained.
This could include stolen credentials or stealer logs.
“We alert [customers] to when threats are discovered and provide them with timely guidance on how best to remediate against it. It’s a really high-growth area,” Bartlam said.
Flare continually monitors not just the customer’s own infrastructure, but also that of its partners and suppliers, ie the supply chain, making attacks such as the recent one on M&S less likely, he stressed.
“CISO and CIOs’ heckles are up”
Bartlam Joined Flare in January, having previously helped take four cybersecurity start-ups to IPO stage.
Flare’s “product-led growth” philosophy – where the product itself is used as the main tool to acquire customers – was a big pull factor for Orca Security, Instart Logic and Cipher Cloud alumnus Bartlam.
Security practitioners who have trialled Flare’s solution for free are typically putting pressure on their CISO or CIO to invest, creating a ready-made sales pipeline, he explained.
“In many ways, the solution sells itself, because the security practitioners just pick it up and say ‘this is brilliant – it’s hugely scalable, it’s very agile, it’s super easy to use and it’s designed for me’,” Bartlam said.
“I really wanted to join a product-led growth company, but also a start-up where speed and innovation are two key hallmarks, and Flare was the perfect fit.”
With CISOs and CIOs increasingly reticent about engaging with outbound sales efforts, product-led growth can be a winning strategy, Bartlam said.
“Over the last few years, it’s become apparent that when they detect a vulnerability in their technology solution stack they’ll go and research their big suppliers, or – if they need something more innovative from more of a start-up environment – they’ll entertain a buy cycle,” he said.
“What they don’t want to do is enter into someone’s sales cycle – the heckles go up very quickly.
“The way the industry has changed to adapt to this is through product-led growth.”
“Aggressive margins”
Under its 100% partner-driven approach in EMEA, Flare will work with Distology to pass these leads to their MSSP and VAR partners, as well as help them win prospects they’ve generated themselves.
Supported by appropriate investment in language support, initial partner recruitment will focus on the UK, Benelux, France and Germany.
Leading with a channel-first strategy in these regions, Flare will provide partner enablement support to ensure all partners have the resources they need to effectively sell Flare.
“We’ve got a really healthy start-up mentality when it comes to margins, so we have an aggressive margin structure,” he added.
Although it already scales up to serve large enterprises, often via global GSIs, Flare’s sweet spot lies in the midmarket, Bartlam said. Around half of its 300-plus clients are MSSPs.
“We’re in high demand from MSSPs who have looked at traditional solutions like Mandiant and Recorded Future, but have found them too expensive or complex and want something that is scalable but also agile and very easy to monetise from a service perspective,” Bartlam said.
The threat intelligence market is “wide open”, according to Bartlam.
“We can give some really compelling threat intelligence insights to our partners, who can then present that to their clients. It’s a top-level service telling them what the threats are to their organisation, their employees and what’s impacting their supply chain,” he concluded.
This article was produced in association with Flare and is classified as partner content. What is partner content? See more here.
