Business development is the strategic initiatives that serve to improve and grow a company's long-term success. In its most simple form, business development is any activity that creates value for the organization. This can include strategic partnerships, expanding sales into new markets, relationship building, lead generation, marketing tactics and more. Business development teams are a crucial part of a B2B SaaS company; they are responsible for identifying growth opportunities in order to scale the business.

Specifically as it relates to partnerships, business development partnerships are when two or more companies join together to grow their business in a new market or to a new customer base.