Cloud Marketplace Listing & Scaling

The Rise of Cloud Marketplaces and the Challenges of SaaS Sales

A decade ago, the introduction of cloud software marketplaces by providers such as Microsoft Azure and AWS created a novel avenue for SaaS companies to reach potential enterprise clients. These platforms effectively shortened traditional, often protracted, sales processes for SaaS vendors.

However, successfully navigating the seller-side experience isn’t always straightforward. Listing software on these marketplaces demands the involvement of multiple engineering personnel, and this operational burden intensifies as a company expands.

Suger: Automating Cloud Marketplace Management

Jon Yoo and Chengjun Yuan, drawing on their experiences at Salesforce and Confluent respectively, recognized this challenge. This led them to establish Suger, a company designed to alleviate the operational complexities associated with selling through cloud marketplaces.

Suger functions as a toolkit that automates SaaS product listings across diverse marketplaces and manages these listings as a business grows. The platform utilizes unified APIs to integrate with a company’s existing billing systems, customer relationship management tools, and other essential infrastructure.

According to Yoo, Suger streamlines various cloud marketplace-related tasks, encompassing flexible pricing strategies, detailed revenue reporting, and the provision of valuable buyer insights.

“Our aim was to create a workflow that orchestrates the actions currently performed daily by these teams,” Yoo explained to TechCrunch. “We are automating each stage of the transaction lifecycle, enabling our clients to scale their operations effectively. Our data demonstrates that customers typically experience a threefold increase in marketplace volume after transitioning to Suger from internal solutions or competitor offerings.”

Growth and Funding

Suger was launched in late 2022 and has since amassed a customer base exceeding 200 companies, including prominent names like Snowflake, Notion, and Intel.

The company recently secured $15 million in Series A funding, spearheaded by Threshold Ventures, with contributions from existing investors such as Craft Ventures, Intel Capital, and Y Combinator. Yoo noted that Suger received numerous investment proposals quickly, as many investors recognized the difficulties their portfolio companies faced in managing cloud marketplaces.

Interestingly, some potential investors suggested Suger might struggle to secure funding in the current climate due to its lack of emphasis on “AI.” However, this did not deter potential backers.

“While we utilize AI internally, it remains a technological component,” Yoo clarified. “AI serves as the underlying technology, but the core value lies in the benefits we deliver to our customers. They prioritize solutions that enhance their work, rather than relying on marketing hype.”

The Expanding Role of Cloud Marketplaces

The utilization of cloud marketplaces is increasingly integral to enterprise sales. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff highlighted that three of Salesforce’s ten largest deals in the second quarter of fiscal 2025 were finalized through AWS’ cloud marketplace.

Yoo also observed that many emerging AI startups are actively leveraging cloud marketplaces as a primary sales channel from the outset.

“This represents a substantial market opportunity,” Yoo stated. “It’s evolving from a supplementary channel to a crucial one for businesses selling to enterprises.”

Competition and Future Plans

The landscape includes competitors, with some companies opting to build their own in-house cloud marketplace listing systems, while others turn to startups like Tackle, which has raised over $148 million in venture capital and offers comparable services to Suger.

Yoo believes Suger benefits from being a second mover. (Tackle launched several years earlier.) Furthermore, Suger’s scope extends beyond merely the listing process, unlike Tackle’s primary focus.

Suger intends to allocate its new funding towards product development and expanding its engineering team. The company also envisions creating tools for the buyer side, assisting enterprises in software procurement and expenditure management.

“We are enthusiastic about the future, both for our company and for cloud marketplaces as a whole,” Yoo concluded. “Our goal is to bring a consumer-like experience to B2B sales, as the current two-year enterprise sales cycle is simply unsustainable.”