From Vision to Action: CPaaSAA and Sandbox Industries Launch Strategic Innovation Partnership

A new collaboration to unlock industry-wide impact through targeted investments and customer-backed innovation.

At the close of Day One at CASA25, as the lights dimmed and attendees leaned into what they thought was the final moment, one more thing took the stage.

Kevin Nethercott, Managing Partner of CPaaS Acceleration Alliance, and Chris Zock, Co-CEO of Sandbox Industries, made it official: a new strategic partnership between the Alliance and Sandbox has commenced — aimed squarely at driving innovation in the communications industry through targeted collaboration.

A Shared Vision for Impact

Since its inception, CPaaSAA has challenged its members to think beyond today—to ask not only how to grow, but how to shape the future. As Kevin put it during the announcement:

“We’ve talked for years about how we can make a real impact on the industry. About how we ensure the startups that don’t even exist today become our biggest customers in 3–5 years. This partnership with Sandbox is how we make that future possible.”

The partnership is built on more than capital—it’s about aligning strategic problems with entrepreneurial solutions, and doing it in a way that’s tailored to the realities of regulated industries like telecoms.

Why Sandbox?

Sandbox Industries has deep roots in complex, regulated markets like healthcare and insurance. With over 20 years of experience, their model has centered on forming coalitions of corporates with shared challenges and goals—then matching them with the right startups and scaleups, and investing in ways that create real alignment.

Chris Zock summarized their approach simply:

“We help companies in highly regulated industries achieve their strategic goals—primarily by helping them harness innovation. And we do that by pairing capital with customers and backing it with deep domain understanding.”

One example Chris shared was a startup that went from $500K to over $1B in recurring revenue in seven years—precisely because it was backed not just by funding, but by a community of engaged customers who helped it learn, scale, and refine quickly.

Now, Sandbox and CPaaSAA aim to apply the same strategic engagement model to the world of cloud communications, CPaaS, and telco innovation.

Not Just Another Venture Fund

Unlike generalist tech VCs chasing the latest AI or API buzzword, Sandbox and CPaaSAA are aligned on a different mission: solving real strategic problems with startups that can scale within and across telcos, service providers, and enterprise communications ecosystems.

“When Chris started talking about solving strategic issues—not just funding cool AI tech—we knew we had found the right partner,” Kevin noted. “This is why we built the Alliance in the first place.”

The partnership isn’t focused on chasing trends. CPaaSAA and Sandbox aim to serve as a catalyst for transformation—supporting companies that can partner with CPaaSAA members to solve their top challenges in customer experience, go-to-market models, security, AI, and more.

What Happens Next?

Over the coming weeks, the joint CPaaSAA-Sandbox team will begin discussions with members interested in learning more about the partnership. Chris issued a simple invitation during the session:

“If this sounds like a good fit for your organization, we’d love to have a one-on-one call. Come with your top 3 strategic challenges—what you’d love to solve with the right entrepreneurial partner. From there, we’ll share more details and explore where we can go together.”

Kevin closed the announcement with a call to action for the entire CPaaS community:

“We believe this is how we create real, lasting impact. This isn’t just about funding startups—it’s about helping all of us become more relevant to our customers, and shaping what the next 100 years of communications looks like.”

Join the Movement

As the industry evolves from cloud-first to AI-native, and from APIs to intelligent engagement, CPaaSAA’s partnership with Sandbox represents a strategic leap forward—bringing new tools, new partnerships, and new opportunities to everyone in the ecosystem.

Members and partners interested in learning more can reach out directly to schedule a conversation. And if you missed the fireside chat—don’t worry, we’ll be sharing video highlights and updates in the coming weeks.

Because the future isn’t just invented. It’s invested in.

And with the right partners, it’s accelerated.