Avalara Taps Founding Employee Patrick Falle for North American Channel Chief Role

IT industry veteran to helm North American channel efforts at rapidly expanding cloud compliance leader

Bainbridge Island, WA – February 23, 2015 – Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based software for sales tax and other transactional tax compliance, today announced  the appointment of Patrick Falle as North American Channel Chief. In this new role, Falle will be responsible for driving the strategic development and success of Avalara’s North American channel partner programs, and ultimately creating an industry-leading channel organization that focuses on delivering an unparalleled partner experience.

In his new capacity, Falle will report directly to Pascal Van Dooren, who oversees global channel efforts in his role as Avalara’s Chief Revenue Officer.

As Avalara continues on an accelerated growth path and makes new acquisitions in key vertical areas like Excise Tax and Retail, the company is undertaking channel reorganization efforts that will promote synergies among channel partners and deliver greater value to the channel as a whole. Avalara’s programs have thus far enabled partners across channels – from accounting and eCommerce software manufacturers to traditional value added resellers (VARs) and accounting firms -- to realize the recurring revenue-based growth opportunities inherent in sales tax automation solutions delivered in a cloud environment.

A 17-year veteran of the IT industry, Falle previously led Avalara’s U.S. Sales efforts, in addition to holding other key sales and channel-centric positions during his 10 years at the company. Prior to Avalara, Falle was Director of Sales and a founding employee at Imperva, and served as Director of Global MSP Sales at Check Point Software Technologies.

Falle inherits growing Avalara channel programs that focus on:

• Delivering world-class products and services for partners to sell
• Enabling success in partners’ businesses
• Helping partners execute on marketing and sales

As Channel Chief, Falle will be tasked with growing the ranks of reselling and development partners, in addition to accounting partners. Improving channel partner profitability will be another key goal, and Falle will continue to scale Avalara’s fast-growing channel engagement team to better assist partners.

“Our channel partner ecosystem is a key asset to Avalara and carries tremendous strategic importance to the company – and this underscores the importance of today’s announcement,” said Van Dooren.  “Patrick’s wealth of experience with multiple sales and channel leadership roles within the IT industry, and SaaS software companies in particular – in addition to his cumulative years of institutional and channel knowledge at Avalara – will be invaluable as he embarks on this essential new role.”

“Avalara was one of the first SaaS providers to show channel partners how to monetize and maximize cloud-based products and services, and they continue to enhance and improve this model,” said Stephen Blythe, CEO at Blytheco. “We’re pleased to see Patrick take the channel helm and continue to expand programs and resources, while providing seasoned personnel to help partners like Blytheco maximize the value of Avalara solutions for our clients.”

About Avalara

Avalara helps businesses of all sizes achieve compliance with sales tax, excise tax, and other transactional tax requirements by delivering comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions that are fast, accurate, and easy to use.  Avalara’s end-to-end suite of solutions is designed to effectively manage complicated and burdensome tax compliance obligations imposed by state, local, and other taxing authorities in the United States and internationally.

Avalara offers hundreds of pre-built connectors into leading accounting, ERP, ecommerce and other business applications. The company processes millions of tax transactions for customers and free users every day, files hundreds of thousands of transactional tax returns per year, and manages millions of exemption certificates and other compliance related documents.

A privately held company, Avalara’s venture capital investors include Sageview Capital, Battery Ventures, Warburg Pincus, Technology Crossover Ventures, Arthur Ventures, and other institutional and individual investors. Avalara employs more than 800 people at its headquarters on Bainbridge Island, WA and in offices across the U.S. and in London, England and Pune, India. More information at: www.avalara.com