Climb Global Solutions Lays Out 2030 Growth Targets, Global M&A Push

Key Points

• Climb Global Solutions outlined a long-term plan through 2030 centered on about 10% annual organic growth plus up to $100 million in annual revenue from acquisitions, with management saying most deals will likely be outside the U.S. and funded cautiously.
• The company is investing heavily in technology, including an AI-powered quoting system expected to launch later this year and a customer experience platform aimed at giving resellers an “Amazon-like” experience by early 2027.
• Executives said Climb’s vendor strategy focuses on challenger brands and channel-friendly partners, while recent expansion in North America and EMEA helped drive 2025 gross billings of $2.1 billion and set up 2026 targets of $2.3 billion in gross billings.

Climb Global Solutions NASDAQ: CLMB used an investor day presentation at Nasdaq to outline its vendor strategy, technology investments, international expansion plans and longer-term financial targets, with management emphasizing faster growth through both organic initiatives and acquisitions.

A company speaker identified as Dale said Climb has completed six acquisitions in six years, all funded with cash, and currently has no debt. He said the company plans to become “a little bit more aggressive” with acquisitions, particularly outside the United States, while continuing to use technology to improve efficiency.

Vendor Strategy Focuses on Challenger Brands

Charles Bass, chief alliances officer at Climb Global Solutions, said the company has built its distribution strategy around emerging and challenger technology vendors rather than competing directly for large incumbent brands such as Cisco, Microsoft, HP and Dell.

Bass said Climb reduced its line card from just under 500 brands in 2018 to about 100 brands today, with 70 brands generating 95% of sales. He said the company evaluates about 600 brands annually, including roughly 400 new evaluations, and typically adds 12 to 18 brands per year while removing 18 to 36.

Bass said Climb prioritizes vendors that are “distribution first,” noting that companies with less than 50% of their business through distribution have had “close to 0%” success with Climb. He said the company focuses less on whether a product is the “best mousetrap” and more on whether the vendor has channel-friendly pricing, margin models, partner programs and execution plans.

Technology Investments Target Quoting and Customer Experience

Vishal Pushpa, CIO of Climb Global Solutions, said the company’s technology strategy is built around three priorities: improving efficiency, enhancing customer experience and securing the operating environment. Pushpa said Climb recently consolidated disjointed systems through an ERP transformation, creating a single source of truth for data.

Pushpa said the company is building an in-house AI-powered quoting system expected to go live around October or November. He said Climb produced about 1.1 million quotes last year, with approximately 95% created manually through email and system entry. The new system is expected to make the inside sales team 30% to 40% more efficient, according to Pushpa.

Climb is also developing a customer experience platform intended to give resellers access to licensing, renewal, order and quote information. Pushpa said the company is aiming for an “Amazon-like experience” and expects the platform to be available for targeted vendors by the first quarter of 2027. He also said Climb is pursuing certifications including SOC 2, NIST 800-171, ISO 27001 in North America and CMMC to support larger vendors, customers and public-sector-related sales.

Sales Leaders Highlight Partner Relationships and Regional Expansion

Carlos Rodrigues, president of North America, said Climb’s sales model is built around relationships with resellers and vendors, supported by field sellers, vendor managers and inside sales teams. He said Climb has 19 field sellers across 13 North American regions and recently added two regional vice presidents.

Rodrigues said Climb recorded $350 million in large-scale RFP wins and vendor transitions in the first half of the year, primarily tied to CDW, SHI, World Wide Technology and Optiv. He said one larger win involved Optiv, with Climb aiming to move that account from about $20 million to more than $120 million over the next year. Rodrigues also said five strategic vendors generated nearly $72 million in year-over-year growth during the first half.

Gerard Brophy, chief revenue officer, said Climb has expanded across EMEA through acquisitions and organic investments, with offices or teams in markets including the U.K., Ireland, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich, Athens and South Africa. Brophy said the South Africa business was launched two months ago with a team of eight people, supported in part by Sophos, which he described as Climb’s largest vendor by revenue.

Brian Davis, vice president of sales for the U.K. and Ireland, said Climb’s EMEA teams are locally based across seven markets and supported by shared services. He said the structure allows Climb to enter new regions with lower marginal cost by extending existing operations rather than building duplicate support functions.

Financial Targets Extend Through 2030

Matt Sullivan, CFO, said Climb generated $2.1 billion in gross billings, $105.3 million in gross profit and $42.9 million in adjusted EBITDA in 2025. He said $1.75 billion of gross billings came from North America and $350 million from EMEA, while EMEA contributed a higher gross profit margin of 8.1% compared with 4.5% in North America.

For 2026, Sullivan said Climb is targeting $2.3 billion in gross billings, $119 million in gross profit and $48.5 million in adjusted EBITDA. He said the model assumes about 10% organic growth, with acquisition activity layered on top.

Management said the company’s longer-term plan calls for organic growth of roughly 10% annually and the acquisition of up to $100 million in revenue per year through 2030. Dale said Climb expects most acquisition opportunities to be outside the U.S., where distribution markets remain more fragmented and margins are higher. He said the company may consider debt for certain acquisitions but would be cautious about issuing equity because management believes the stock is underpriced.

Sullivan said Climb has 45 vendors globally generating more than $10 million in gross billings, up from about 22 in 2022. He also said about 80 vendors account for 90% of consolidated gross billings. In response to an analyst question, Rodrigues said management views the 2030 targets as achievable and “a bit on the conservative side.”

AI Seen as Opportunity, Not Immediate Threat

During the question-and-answer session, executives said they have not seen an immediate negative impact from AI on renewals or core software demand. Brophy said enterprise customers are still determining what they want to achieve with AI, while Matt Whitton, COO in EMEA, said AI is helping vendors release products more quickly and is creating additional opportunities around governance, security and cloud cost management.

Davis said AI could accelerate cybersecurity demand as companies seek to protect data, identity and infrastructure from more sophisticated threats. Pushpa added that companies are increasingly buying breach simulation and SASE-related tools as AI adoption grows.

About Climb Global Solutions NASDAQ: CLMB

Climb Global Solutions Inc operates as a value-added information technology (IT) distribution and solutions company in the United States, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Distribution and Solutions. The company distributes technical software to corporate and value-added resellers, consultants, and systems integrators under the name Climb Channel Solutions; and provides cloud solutions and resells software, hardware, and services under the name Grey Matter.

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