Climb Global Solutions posted record third-quarter net sales of $220.3 million, a 37% increase from the same period last year, driven by cybersecurity demand, expanding vendor partnerships, and acquisitions. The specialty distributor also reported adjusted EBITDA of $14.7 million, up 35% year over year. CEO Dale Foster said the company's strategy continues to center on building vendor relationships, streamlining transaction processes, and supporting resellers rather than competing on scale with larger distributors.
Foster credited much of Climb's growth to its vendor lineup and sales team, particularly cybersecurity partners Fortinet and Darktrace. The Fortinet partnership, announced in December 2025, has accelerated as resellers shift business to Climb from competing distributors. "We have resellers and VARs and MSPs that are just like, I just want the experience that I get from your team versus where I get it from another competitor," Foster said. Darktrace has required a longer development period, with Climb aligning its sales organization with the vendor's teams and establishing more efficient distribution workflows. Climb's October acquisition of French distributor NeoVAD, which generates roughly $30 million in annual revenue, supports the company's international expansion. Foster noted that NeoVAD's reseller training and customer education capabilities could shape how Climb supports partners in other markets, saying "The French are going to teach us more than we're going to teach them." He highlighted similar lessons from Climb's Interworks business in Greece, where marketplace-based transactions are helping the organization better understand how managed service providers purchase and manage technology.
Foster sees AI infrastructure investment and cybersecurity requirements as interconnected drivers of demand, with newly deployed hardware and expanding AI environments creating additional security needs. However, he identified internal systems as a potential constraint on future growth, explaining that Climb has prioritized IT investment to improve transaction capacity and reduce manual work. That focus reflects a broader industry challenge: distributors must process increasingly complex transactions while providing technical expertise and partner enablement. For Climb, the solution isn't necessarily a larger product catalog or a more expansive business model. "I do not want to act like we're gonna acquire companies to be the size of, you know, Arrow or Ingram. I never wanted to do that," Foster said.
As Climb enters the final quarter of 2026, Foster expects continued momentum while maintaining the company's specialty distribution approach. "We're going to take this back to the basics. The most important thing we do at Climb is that we show up at the vendors to say, Hey, we think we're a good choice for you to take your product to market, and we show up at the resellers, the VARs, the MSPs, and the dealers. That's our value," he said. The results follow strong earnings across the distribution sector, with recent analysis highlighting growth at TD SYNNEX, Ingram Micro, and Westcon-Comstor. Foster's emphasis on relationship-building and transaction efficiency over scale suggests that specialty distributors can carve out sustainable positions even as larger competitors dominate market share. The question isn't whether Climb can compete with mega-distributors, but whether its partner-first model can maintain margins and loyalty as vendor consolidation reshapes the channel ecosystem.