How Strategic Tech Partnerships Are Evolving in Global Markets

How Strategic Tech Partnerships Are Evolving in Global Markets

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Growth operator, Laurent Deheuvels, shares expertise and insights on partnerships for global expansion and how to leverage them in today’s markets.

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If you're a Series B+ tech founder eyeing international growth, chances are your playbook includes some version of: “Let’s find a local partner to sell our product.” It’s a classic move and in some markets, still a necessary one. 

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We want to oppose it being the norm for every new market entry strategy because in our experience, the best partnerships in 2025 aren’t sales channels, they’re product teams. And this is why our Growth Services achieve the success they do with our customers.

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Gone are the days when channel resellers could carry your GTM on their backs. The global tech landscape has shifted. Strategic alliances now hinge on co-building, not just co-selling. Think shared IP, joint roadmaps, and mutual ownership of customer outcomes, not logo swaps and launch day webinars.

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The best partnerships today are more like product teams than sales channels.

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In one standout example, a North American SaaS company partnered with a dominant systems integrator (SI) in Southeast Asia to break into Indonesia’s banking sector. They didn’t just localise features or slap on a translation layer. They embedded their product into the SI’s core platform, co-designed the offer, and co-sold through local account teams. 

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The result: Deep adoption, fast traction, and a pipeline they could actually deliver on.

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Why it worked: Because it wasn't extracting distribution, but enabling local growth. That mindset shift is key.

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IDC predicts that by 2026, 60% of digital services revenue will come from ecosystem partnerships. Not from your outbound SDRs or search ads. From partner ecosystems that are aligned, integrated, and jointly invested in success.

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Tech alliances are shifting from resale to roadmap.

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We’re seeing the same with global leaders like Microsoft and AWS. Their partner programs have evolved beyond referrals and rebates so they now incentivise co-development, marketplace integrations, and shared customer success metrics. 

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Stripe, Snowflake, even regional scale-ups across EMEA are doubling down on partnerships that feel more like joint ventures than sales agreements.

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What this means for you: Partner enablement needs a rebrand. Arming someone with PDFs and expecting a pipeline won’t cut it. Operationalising co-creation, product-to-product alignment, roadmap collaboration, shared marketing motion, and mutual accountability should be focus areas.

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Co-marketing has become co-design - joint GTM is now a joint roadmap

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If you're still approaching international partnerships with a channel-first mindset, it's time to level up to not just unlock new markets, but also build local relevance faster with expansion through co-creation.

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Turn your partners into your growth engine in a new market with Think & Grow

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Our growth experts are on standby, connect and learn how we help scale-ups shift from sales-led to product-led partnerships, globally.

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