"Suger is the glue between people, the glue between systems. I don't know how I would have done it without you guys at this stage."
Overview
Aikido Security is a cloud-native application security platform trusted by more than 50,000 organizations worldwide. The company covers the full software development lifecycle — from code scanning and cloud security posture management to autonomous penetration testing and runtime protection — and has become the go-to choice for developer-first teams at companies like Revolut, SoundCloud, and Kong.
After reaching unicorn status in a single year, Aikido needed its cloud go-to-market infrastructure to keep pace. By partnering with Suger, the company went from manually creating private offers in the AWS console to running a fully automated, multi-marketplace engine across AWS and Azure marketplaces.
Opportunity
Built for scale before the scale hit
Johan De Keulenaer, Head of Partnerships at Aikido Security, made cloud marketplaces a pillar of the company's partner strategy from the start. As a cloud-agnostic security platform scanning across AWS, Azure, Alibaba, Oracle Cloud, and GCP, Aikido's customers were already buying through those hyperscalers. The question wasn't whether to be on marketplaces — it was how to do it without creating a bottleneck.
Johan began by setting up AWS Marketplace manually. Within weeks, the limitations were obvious.
"Imagine entering an old museum — here on the left something in the UI, then you need to go somewhere else to connect some stuff," he said. "I really did it the hard way. And I knew if I needed to do the same thing on another marketplace, it wasn't scalable. I didn't want to be the bottleneck."
The vision was clear before the scale arrived: automated private offer creation, CRM integration so sellers could self-serve, unified multi-marketplace management, easy co-sell activation with hyperscaler seller teams, and reporting that closed the loop with finance. With Aikido preparing to grow and eventually put 100+ sellers in their commercial team on the platform, the engine needed to exist before the demand did.
"I'm building an engine," Johan said. "And Suger was the right partner to build it with. Suger is central to our marketplace operations and we run our GTM through it."
Solution
Turning marketplace into a self-service channel
Johan's approach had two phases: get the infrastructure right, then get out of the way.
- Eliminating the busy work. Before Suger, creating private offers was a manual, repetitive task handled by Johan and one colleague. He'd seen what happens when companies try to scale that model — dedicated deal-desk teams across regions doing nothing but admin, with attrition to match. "I didn't see it as realistic to have a couple of people doing private offers every day," he said. "I want my team talking to an AWS rep about a go-to-market campaign, or to a Microsoft account manager on an enterprise co-sell."
- CRM-embedded self-service. With Suger integrated into Aikido's CRM, the team can create private offers independently across all three hyperscaler marketplaces. New sellers joining in any region — EMEA, APAC, the US — follow a Notion doc, get coached by their sales leader, and start creating offers in minutes without the partnerships team involved. "I see private offers coming in, self-service growing, and the dollars coming in. I don't touch anything anymore," Johan said.
- Automated co-sell at scale. Aikido started pushing opportunities into AWS ACE manually, one by one. Through Suger, they built an automated flow that now pushes 30 opportunities daily — activating co-sell motions with hyperscaler reps and putting Aikido on the radar at the executive level within AWS and Microsoft globally. "If we previously had to do that manually, it was maybe six steps. Now it's one step — part of their normal information gathering around the opportunity," Johan said.
- Finance in the loop. Multiple finance team members now independently track offer-acceptance notifications, monitor payouts, and access reporting through the platform. Johan deliberately distributed responsibility across the organization so marketplace operations wouldn't live with one team.
Outcome
The engine is running
In the span of Aikido's growth, cloud marketplace went from a manual side project to a fully embedded revenue channel — with the metrics to prove it.
- Private offer volume scaled from roughly one per week to 60 per week, without adding dedicated marketplace operations headcount.
- 100+ sellers now self-serve across AWS, Azure, and GCP, creating private offers independently through the CRM integration.
- Self-service deals increased 50% from marketplace presence alone — customers finding and transacting through listings without a sales touch.
- Co-sell became automated, with 30+ opportunities flowing into AWS ACE daily, giving Aikido global visibility with hyperscaler partner teams.
- Q1 revenue already surpassed the prior year's full marketplace total, signaling that marketplace is now a core revenue engine.
And perhaps most telling: Johan spent RSA week — one of cybersecurity's biggest conferences — away from the platform entirely. The Slack channel kept lighting up with accepted offers and closed deals.
"We went through the storming, the norming — and now we're in the performing phase," Johan said. "New sellers join and they just use it. I don't need to explain anything. Suger is the glue between people, the glue between systems. I don't know how I would have done it without you guys at this stage."
About Aikido Security
Aikido Security is Europe's fastest-growing cybersecurity company, trusted by more than 50,000 organizations in industries spanning fintech, enterprise software, and government. Its cloud-native platform secures the full software development lifecycle — from code scanning to autonomous penetration testing and runtime protection. Founded in Belgium, the company has grown from 30 to over 250 employees with a global sales presence across Europe, the US, APAC, and the Middle East.
Learn more at aikido.dev.