IBM is helping $2 billion Box sell a whole lot more because of a mega deal struck last year

When Box announced its partnership with IBM last year, Box CEO Aaron Levie called it the "most significant" deal in his company's 10-year history.

Now, after a little over a year, we're starting to see that deal bear real fruit for Levie's $2 billion company.

During Box's earnings call on Wednesday, Levie said IBM helped his company close 8 of the 45 six-figure deals in the quarter, including one contract that was worth more than $500,000. IBM's massive sales channel is particularly effective in expanding in overseas markets, he said, as more than half of the deals from IBM partnership happened internationally.

"Customers are seeing the potential of leveraging both Box and IBM products together," Levie said during the earnings call.

Long-term advantages

Some of the new customers that came through IBM include a financial institution in Latin America that chose Box because of its close integration with IBM products, while one large retailer signed because of the "long-term advantages" of the Box-IBM partnership, Levie said.

"I think you're going to see a pretty strong pick up of big deals happening internationally especially with the IBM partnership where we have channel partners that can kind of help us enter those markets where we may be don't have feet on the ground, where we are building up a bigger presence," he added.

Box and IBM struck a major partnership deal in June 2015 that would let the two companies share their core technology and co-develop new products. IBM also agreed to use its massive salesforce and consulting team to sell Box to its network of business customers in exchange for getting access to Box's content management system. With the partnership, IBM also became a Box customer, soon signing a contract worth over $500,000.

Box reported $95.7 million in quarterly revenue, up 30% year-over-year, beating street estimates in its most recent quarter. Box reiterated its plan to become cash flow break-even by early next year.

And as Box heads into the second half of the year, when more enterprise deals typically close, the IBM effect is only going to accelerate, Levie said.

"In the second half of the year, this is obviously where we would expect more of that performance. I think you'll see continued execution from the partnership," he said.