Software Combined appoints Brent Maxwell as CTO to oversee AI maturity across the group

Appointment reflects scale and growth plans across the portfolio of B2B software businesses.

Software Combined has appointed Brent Maxwell as the group’s first chief technology officer to oversee its 13 portfolio businesses, which includes IT outfits Activate, MacroView and DBVisit.

Software Combined recently appointed an AI and automations specialist and as the portfolio grows it will assess what additional capability is needed at group level.

The business operates as a permanent capital acquirer of B2B software businesses across ANZ and Benelux and the appointment reflects the scale the group has reached and its plans for growth across the portfolio.

“At that scale, having group-level technical leadership isn't a nice-to-have, it's the right structure. The role exists to work alongside each business on the technical and innovation capabilities that will determine how fast they grow from here,” said Stefan Jansen, co-founder and CRO, Software Combined.

Maxwell will also be responsible for technical due diligence on future acquisitions and building out technical leadership capability across the group.

“The work is tailored to each business, not a blanket policy rolled out from the top, but hands-on support based on where each company actually is,” Jansen said.

“The conversation across the tech community right now isn't about whether to adopt AI. It's about pace and depth, how fast, how embedded, how real. We want every business in our portfolio to be moving at the speed the opportunity demands,” Jansen added.

Maxwell brings more than a decade of technical leadership across high-growth software businesses, including three prior CTO appointments and a senior architecture role at AWS to drive cloud adoption with strategic partners across APAC.

His brief is to work alongside each business on AI readiness and development velocity, which includes how products are built, supported and taken to market through the channel.

"As AI accelerates how B2B software is built and deployed, the channel becomes more important, not less. The implementers who understand a customer's business are what turns good software into real results. That's expertise isn't going anywhere, the pace of change makes it more valuable,” said Maxwell.