Spotto launches in ANZ to optimise cloud costs for SaaS firms

Spotto, an AI-native platform aimed at optimising Microsoft Azure cloud operations, has launched in the Australia and New Zealand regions, targeting software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers and managed service providers (MSPs).

Founded by Shaun Webber, Symon Thurlow, and Jay Strydom, the Spotto platform is positioned as a solution to controlling escalating cloud costs and improving operational efficiencies through continuous scanning, automated recommendations, and execution around Azure environments.

SaaS margins

The founders identified that cloud expenditure represents a significant portion of cost for SaaS businesses, directly impacting profitability and investor appeal. Spotto enables CFOs and CEOs to view costs at the product and feature level, clarifying the impact of cloud infrastructure spending on gross margins.

"Cloud optimisation is no longer just an engineering concern - it's a boardroom issue," said Shaun Webber, CEO and Co-founder of Spotto. "SaaS executives want to grow revenue and expand valuation multiples, but every wasted dollar of cloud spend reduces gross margin. Spotto makes that problem visible and solvable, providing the kind of clarity investors now expect to see."

In addition to financial visibility, Spotto offers an Action Engine for engineering leaders, providing a phased approach from surfacing savings opportunities to automating fixes and eventually enabling delegated automated execution. This is intended to alleviate the burden on technical teams and allow a focus on product innovation, rather than ongoing cloud management tasks.

"Engineering teams are stretched thin," said Symon Thurlow, Co-founder of Spotto. "In our previous MSP business we worked with over 100 SaaS companies, and saw firsthand how much time was wasted firefighting infrastructure issues. Spotto gives those teams back their time, automating away low-value operational work so they can keep their best engineers focused on customer-facing innovation."

MSP opportunities

For managed service providers, Spotto is intended to help both by reducing costs for client organisations and by surfacing opportunities to deliver new professional services. The platform's continuous scanning can identify inefficiencies or misconfigurations, generating project work that MSPs can charge for, extending the value MSPs can offer beyond cost cutting.

"MSPs are under pressure to prove their value in a highly competitive market," said Jay Strydom, CTO and Co-founder of Spotto. "By embedding Spotto into their service model, they can automatically identify areas to reduce cloud waste while presenting clients with new, high-value services. It's not about taking away billable work - it's about uncovering it."

The platform leverages artificial intelligence to contextualise and prioritise insights, reducing the reliance on manual analysis by senior engineers and providing actionable information that MSPs can use to operate more efficiently and scale their service capacity.

Founder's experience

The team behind Spotto has prior experience in the cloud optimisation sector. Shaun Webber and Symon Thurlow co-founded the Azure-focused MSP Parallo, which was acquired by Rhipe in 2020. Jay Strydom contributes over two decades of experience in software engineering and architecture.

"Every SaaS company we worked with at Parallo faced the same challenge: they wanted to innovate on product, not spend cycles optimising cloud infrastructure," said Thurlow. "MSPs faced the mirror image - trying to create scalable services while delivering value in environments that were constantly changing. Spotto is the product we wished we'd had to solve both problems."

Spotto's features for SaaS customers include visibility and reporting on costs and margins at the product and feature level, continuous optimisation across performance, security, and availability, and an Action Engine for managing recommendations and execution. The notable objectives for SaaS firms are to enhance gross margins and support investor confidence.

For MSPs, Spotto provides ongoing scanning of client Azure environments, clarity on optimisation opportunities, and an engine for proactively identifying projects that can be offered as paid services, along with reduced engineering overhead to support scaled delivery.

A closed beta programme for Spotto launched from the start of September, with both SaaS and MSP organisations participating. Broader general availability is anticipated later in the year, with customised offerings targeted toward each segment.