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AppDirect has raised $652.3M across 10 funding rounds.
Key people at AppDirect.
AppDirect has raised $652.3M in total across 10 funding rounds.
Based in San Francisco, California, AppDirect provides a cloud-based B2B subscription commerce platform that enables enterprise businesses to build and operate digital marketplaces to sell, manage, and distribute software and IT services. Operating under a software-as-a-service business model, the company generates revenue through subscription fees alongside transaction and revenue-sharing models from marketplace sales. The enterprise has achieved unicorn status with a valuation exceeding $1.5 billion, having raised over $470 million in total venture funding to support its global expansion. With a workforce of approximately 1,000 employees across twelve international offices, the platform facilitates digital service distribution to more than 35 million businesses worldwide. AppDirect is backed by institutional investors including CDPQ and Mithril Capital, serving a corporate client roster that features Comcast and Deutsche Telekom. The technology company was founded in 2009 by Daniel Saks and Nicolas Desmarais.
AppDirect is a leading B2B subscription commerce platform that enables technology providers, advisors, and businesses to buy, sell, and manage recurring technology services, including cloud subscriptions, software, hardware, and AI solutions.[1][4][5] Its platform simplifies the digital commerce process by offering a marketplace, developer tools, billing, and analytics, serving over 1,000 providers, 14,000 advisors, and 16 million subscribers worldwide, with clients like Land Rover, Jaguar, and Deutsche Telekom.[3][4] AppDirect solves the complexity of fragmented tech stacks—such as payments, productivity tools, and infrastructure—by providing a unified, omni-channel ecosystem for mass deployment and lifecycle management, driving growth in the digital economy.[1][3][5]
The company targets enterprises of all sizes seeking scalable, efficient technology procurement and distribution, with strong momentum from recent expansions like acquisitions of Firstbase and Broker Online Exchange, a pending vCom deal, and the 2025 launch of devs.ai, an AI-led marketplace for B2B procurement.[2][6]
AppDirect was founded in 2009 by Daniel Saks and Nicolas Desmarais (co-CEOs, with Desmarais also as Chairman) in a San Francisco apartment as a two-person operation.[1][3][5] The idea emerged to revolutionize the "Digi-physical" space by creating a subscription commerce platform tailored for technology merchants, contrasting one-time physical goods sales with recurring digital services like cloud-based tools.[3] Early focus was on building an integrated marketplace, developer platform, and commerce engine to connect software vendors seamlessly with businesses.[1]
Pivotal growth came from rapid scaling to nearly 1,000 employees across 12 offices, expanding distribution to over 35 million businesses globally, and establishing itself as the standard for omni-channel tech sales among over a million U.S. technology advisors.[3][4] This evolution humanizes AppDirect's human-centered ethos, prioritizing advisor-driven go-to-market and ecosystem innovation.[5]
AppDirect stands out in the subscription commerce space through these key strengths:
AppDirect rides the explosive growth of subscription commerce and the digital economy, where businesses demand flexible, recurring tech access amid cloud, AI, and hybrid work trends.[1][6][7] Its timing aligns with market forces like rising SaaS adoption, advisor-led distribution (e.g., Shopify/Square for tech merchants), and the need to consolidate fragmented stacks—enabling mass deployment from hosting providers and advisors.[1][3]
By influencing the ecosystem as the "everything store" for B2B procurement, AppDirect accelerates innovation for providers (e.g., easy packaging/updates), empowers advisors with playbooks/tools, and equips enterprises with analytics-driven management, spanning 35+ million businesses and fostering personalized digital experiences.[3][4][6] This positions it as a supply chain transformer, akin to e-commerce platforms but for technology services.[3]
AppDirect is poised to dominate B2B subscription commerce as AI integration (via devs.ai) and acquisitions expand its platform into holistic procurement—covering hardware, energy, and beyond—targeting even broader ecosystem monetization.[6] Trends like agentic AI, channel acceleration, and omni-channel demands will propel growth, with events like the 2025 Thrive conference signaling partner expansions and Fortune 500 traction.[6]
Its advisor-centric influence will evolve into the indispensable backbone for tech distribution, simplifying digital transformation at scale and cementing its role as the unifying force in a complex, subscription-driven world—much like its founding vision to connect vendors and businesses with unmatched confidence.[5]
AppDirect has raised $652.3M across 10 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $100.0M Other Equity in January 2024.
Key people at AppDirect.
AppDirect has raised $652.3M in total across 10 funding rounds.
AppDirect's investors include Pierre Fitzgibbon, Larry Unrein, Kevin Hartz, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Greylock, Hanabi Capital, Highland Capital Partners, iNovia Capital, Iris Capital, Khosla Ventures.
