1Nebula and SoftwareOne: Scaling marketplace success in a multi-cloud world

For independent software vendors (ISVs), the promise of hyperscaler marketplaces is compelling: access to enterprise customers, streamlined procurement, and alignment with existing cloud commitments. Yet in practice, turning that promise into revenue remains complex. Technical integration, commercial structuring, and ecosystem navigation all present significant barriers.

This is the challenge that 1Nebula has set out to solve – and one that its partnership with SoftwareOne is helping to address at global scale.

Founded in South Africa, 1Nebula has built its business around enabling ISVs to transact effectively through cloud marketplaces. Its Stactize platform simplifies what is often a fragmented and technically demanding process, allowing software vendors to list, manage, and scale their offerings across the Azure, AWS, and GCP marketplaces.

“For many years, we were distinctly Microsoft-centric,” says Andre Witte, Managing Director SaaS at 1Nebula. “When we started to cooperate regionally with SoftwareOne in South Africa, and then committed to a global partnership in 2022, it was to enable ISVs to scale successfully on the Azure marketplace. But now we can support you on the Amazon and Google marketplaces too.”

How Stactize drives marketplace enablement

One of the primary challenges faced by ISVs is the technical integration required to make their software fully transactable within enterprise marketplaces. “Most ISVs do not possess the necessary capabilities to establish a seamless, hands-off purchase model independently,” says Witte. “We make this problem go away and can integrate you swiftly – often in a single day.”

Stactize reduces marketplace integration costs by 80%.

“But of course the launch is only the first step,” Witte adds.

Once the product is live, the next phase involves amplifying the solution, and Stactize supports vendors with all aspects necessary for successful channel sales. This includes support with private offers, achieving required designations, and navigating marketplace standards and playbooks.

“If you’re a tech CEO who is having to integrate AI agents into your application, you don’t have time to manage channel sales, but you still have to generate revenue from somewhere. That’s okay – for $299 a month Stactize takes this problem off your hands and ramps up sales while you focus on product development.”

Stactize reduces customer acquisition costs by 30% and drives a 40% acceleration in sales cycles.

“But to get to the next level on the global stage, we needed a global partner,” Witte says. “And this is what we found in SoftwareOne.”

Driving global expansion from APAC to Amsterdam

Although 1Nebula is based in South Africa, Stactize and Witte himself have moved their center of gravity to Europe, where Amsterdam serves as a springboard for expansion.

“Amsterdam itself has a thriving tech and startup culture,” says Witte, “and of course SoftwareOne has a dominant presence in Europe. So in this phase of our growth strategy, it makes a lot of sense for Stactize to be here.”

Since 1Nebula became a formal SoftwareOne channel partner in 2022, their joint activity has centered on the APAC region where Stactize has made huge strides.

“SoftwareOne started introducing us to customers who wanted to launch their products on the Microsoft marketplace or were struggling to make their presence there a success,” says Witte. “APAC now accounts for an estimated 15–20% of our new business pipeline – and this is all due to SoftwareOne”

At the same time, the partnership works in both directions: 1Nebula also brings ISVs into the SoftwareOne ecosystem, reinforcing a mutually beneficial flow of opportunities.

“Our joint success is not confined to the APAC region,” Witte continues. “A recent important win is Legal Interact for whom we launched and now manage a lot of groundbreaking solutions on Azure, such as Matter Manager, Contract Understanding, Contract Manager, and My AI Lawyer.

“Legal Interact grows its sales, we earn our monthly fee, and SoftwareOne benefits from being Legal Interact’s cloud provider. A win-win-win,” says Witte, “and one that the emergence of AI agents will amplify tremendously.”

Adapting to a changing cloud landscape

Microsoft predicts that there will be 1.3 billion AI agents by 2028, increasing the stakes and urgency around marketplace monetization.

“Every SaaS provider is thinking about how to monetize AI agents, and the marketplaces are becoming the natural place to do that.”

Hyperscalers are reinforcing this trend. Microsoft, Google Cloud, and AWS are all investing in marketplace capabilities tailored to AI solutions, with increasing levels of governance, security validation, and enterprise integration.

At the same time, changes in Microsoft partner programs and go-to-market models prompted both 1Nebula and SoftwareOne to broaden their approach. Where the initial focus was heavily Microsoft-centric, the partnership has evolved into a multi-cloud strategy encompassing AWS and Google Cloud.

“We realized we needed to support multiple hyperscalers,” Witte explains. “That’s true for our customers, and it’s true for SoftwareOne as well. We’re aligned in wanting to support multi-vendor, multi-cloud environments.”

This shift is already underway. AWS capabilities were introduced around a year ago, with Google Cloud following more recently. While still early in adoption, these additions are expected to play a growing role, particularly in regions such as the Middle East and APAC, where cloud preferences are more diverse.

Enabling the next phase of growth

Looking ahead, both companies see significant opportunity in the continued evolution of cloud marketplaces. As enterprise procurement becomes increasingly centralized through hyperscalers, the ability to transact seamlessly and at scale will become a critical differentiator for software vendors.

For 1Nebula, this means continued investment in automation, multi-cloud capabilities, and ecosystem integration. For SoftwareOne, it reinforces the importance of marketplace enablement as part of its broader value proposition.

Joint initiatives, including webinars and regional enablement sessions, are already helping to educate ISVs on how to navigate this landscape. These efforts focus not only on technical onboarding, but also on the commercial strategies required to succeed – from co-sell motions to pricing structures and partner engagement.

“We recently hosted a webinar in partnership with Software One, examining the activities of hyperscalers and the evolving role of AI agents,” says Witte. “We also explored how organizations are monetizing their AI agents within these platforms.

“Beyond webinars, our collaborative efforts have extended to regional events. For example, we took part in an event in Singapore, which brought together internal sellers from SoftwareOne across the region, including Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia. The session focused on the introduction of AWS and the roadmap for GCP, along with the integration of Microsoft solutions. While these events were not customer-facing, they played a crucial role in aligning internal teams and sharing strategic updates on cloud marketplace developments.”

Ultimately, the partnership between 1Nebula and SoftwareOne reflects a broader shift in the industry: from cloud adoption to cloud optimization, and from product delivery to platform-based ecosystems.

As Witte puts it, the goal is simple: “Make it easy for software companies to sell where their customers are buying.”

In an increasingly complex, multi-cloud world, that capability is becoming indispensable – and through their collaboration, 1Nebula and SoftwareOne are helping to make it a reality.