Overview
Tackle.io helped software vendors sell through cloud marketplaces without building and maintaining every marketplace integration themselves. It began when those marketplaces were young, grew into a multi-cloud sales platform, and joined AppDirect in December 2025. Tackle continues under its own brand. Tackle
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Founding Story
Dillon Woods and Brian Denker founded Tackle in 2016. The founders had seen the work involved in selling enterprise software and wanted to remove friction from buying and selling through cloud marketplaces. Woods began building when the marketplaces were still emerging. Tackle company page, Tackle Series A
The company described its initial product as middleware for marketplace sales: vendors could use it instead of writing custom software for each cloud's requirements. Tackle says it took the product to market in 2018, with New Relic as its first lighthouse customer. This early customer demonstrated the workflow but does not establish its economics. Tackle
Timeline
- 2016–2018: Woods and Denker founded Tackle; the company built its first product and took it to market in 2018. Tackle
- 2020: Bessemer backed its Series A. Tackle
- March 2021: Andreessen Horowitz announced its investment in Tackle's $35 million Series B. a16z
- December 2021: Tackle announced a $100 million Series C, co-led by Coatue and a16z, at a reported $1.25 billion valuation. The company said it had raised $148 million in total. Tackle press release
- December 2025: AppDirect announced an agreement to acquire Tackle; Tackle later stated that the acquisition completed that month. The exact closing day is not established. AppDirect, Tackle
What They Built
Tackle helped independent software vendors list and sell their products through AWS, Microsoft, and Google cloud marketplaces. Its platform expanded beyond listings to private offers, co-selling workflows, and buyer data. This addressed a practical issue: each marketplace has its own processes, while a vendor's sales team needs a consistent way to work across them. AppDirect
In 2021, Woods and CEO John Jahnke described a shift from competing with vendors' in-house integrations to serving companies that needed to manage larger multi-cloud marketplace businesses. Their account is a company perspective, not independent proof that every vendor preferred to buy. Tackle
Market Position
Cloud marketplaces gave buyers a procurement route through existing cloud relationships. Tackle sold the tooling and expertise to vendors pursuing that route. It said its platform had processed more than $20 billion in marketplace transactions; that figure is transaction volume, not Tackle revenue. Tackle
The category remains competitive. Clazar and Labra also offer cloud marketplace sales software, while WorkSpan addresses partner and co-selling workflows. Their coverage and commercial models differ; buyers should compare the marketplaces and sales systems they actually use. G2
Business Model
Tackle sold software and services to vendors seeking to list, transact, and coordinate marketplace sales. Its commercial opportunity grew with customers' use of those channels. Public sources here do not establish exact pricing, margins, or the proportion of transaction volume retained as revenue. Tackle
Outcome and evolution
AppDirect said the combination would connect cloud marketplace distribution with its existing commerce and advisor network. Its December 1, 2025 announcement described an agreement, while Tackle's later company page confirms the acquisition occurred in December. The deal price and investor returns are not disclosed in these sources. Tackle continues to present its platform and brand. AppDirect, Tackle
Key Lessons
Tackle turned repeated integration work into a product as cloud marketplaces became a sales channel. Supporting multiple marketplaces increased its usefulness to vendors but also tied the product to external platform rules. Its expansion from publishing a listing to managing offers and co-selling followed the customer's sales process rather than stopping at the first technical integration.
Sources
The links above include Tackle's own history, its investor's announcement, the Series C release, and AppDirect's deal announcement.