Kong partners with Unfold to widen ANZ channel reach

Kong has partnered with Unfold to support its channel ecosystem across Australia and New Zealand, with the agreement aimed at expanding Kong's partner reach in the region.

Under the arrangement, Unfold will work with Kong's partners to align sales activity with the vendor's current go-to-market priorities and market demand. The focus is on helping partners identify sales opportunities, sharpen product positioning and generate more consistent revenue.

Growth plans

Kong is seeking to grow through indirect sales channels in Australia and New Zealand, where technology vendors often rely on local partners to reach enterprise and mid-market customers. That model can create challenges when partners lack a clear view of a vendor's immediate priorities or the most relevant customer use cases.

Unfold, which describes itself as a channel activation and software distribution business, will provide targeted sales plays, technical positioning and use-case guidance. It will also identify and curate opportunities that match current market demand.

The partnership reflects broader competition among software vendors to strengthen channel coverage as interest in artificial intelligence and application programming interface tools grows. Kong develops software to connect, manage and govern API and AI traffic, and is positioning that work as central to customer AI projects.

Partner focus

For partners, the model is intended to reduce the self-directed effort needed to understand Kong's commercial priorities. Instead, Unfold will take Kong's market narrative and sales opportunities directly to partners in an effort to shorten the time between engagement and revenue generation.

James Cunial said the company saw immediate opportunity for Kong among partners working on AI and API projects.

"Kong sits at the centre of where APIs and AI converge, and that opportunity is playing out right now," said Cunial.

"As AI initiatives materialise and demand accelerates, our focus is to help partners move quickly, position Kong clearly, and convert that opportunity into real pipeline and revenue across ANZ."

For Kong, the tie-up is also about scale. The partnership is expected to act as a multiplier for its regional sales efforts by broadening outreach and helping it add new partners more quickly.

Regional scale

Mark West said the relationship was a strategic way to respond to regional demand.

"Kong is at the heart of all things AI, serving as the infrastructure and connectivity layer that organisations must consider as the whole agentic AI footprint explodes," said West.

"To match demand and scale as quickly as required in the ANZ market, partnerships such as the one we are embarking on with Unfold are a strategic enabler. This will help us not only scale our outreach, but also onboard new partners to help furnish the opportunity in front of us. As a vendor we need to move fast, and that includes how and who we partner with. This is where we see the Unfold partnership paying dividends."

Kong serves large enterprises as well as newer AI-focused companies, and its software is used to manage connectivity across different cloud environments and models. In Australia and New Zealand, that places it in a market where businesses are increasing spending on AI-related tools while also trying to maintain control over data flows, integration and governance.

Unfold's role in that market is to help technology partners navigate complex software portfolios and turn vendor relationships into repeatable sales activity. Its involvement with Kong suggests the vendor is seeking a more guided channel model rather than relying on partners to build demand on their own.

The companies framed the partnership around a practical channel problem: translating vendor strategy into partner action. In that respect, the agreement is less about broad brand awareness and more about ensuring resellers and service providers know which customer problems to pursue and how Kong's products fit those conversations.

West said speed in partner recruitment and engagement would be a key factor in the region's growth.