Global accounting software company Xero has revealed that it is paying up to $70 million to acquire South African cloud-based reporting and analytics platform Syft Analytics.

Anticipated to conclude in the first quarter of 2025, this acquisition represents a significant advancement in Xero’s growth and dedication to improving its insights and reporting capabilities in strategic markets.

The cloud-based reporting, insights, and analytics platform, founded in South Africa and presently accessible as an app partner through the Xero App Store, will continue to serve small businesses and their bookkeepers and accountants as a stand-alone product.

Read also: South Africa’s regulator broadens election investigation to include Google and X

More about Syft 

Eleftherios Kyriazis, Matt Stephanou, and Vangelis Kyriazis co-founded Syft in 2016 in Parktown North, Johannesburg, South Africa. The company was initially bootstrapped and focused on offering financial analytics to small businesses.

Despite several obstacles, the business had 200 clients and seven staff members by the end of 2019.

The analytics platform didn’t become well known until the COVID-19 epidemic, when the need for cloud-based solutions increased along with remote work and virtual communication, even reaching Canada and New Zealand.

According to Syft, its product is currently the most popular reporting app in Xero’s marketplace, serving thousands of users across over 80 countries.

The purchase of Syft is in line with Xero’s goal of providing improved tools for data-driven decision-making to accountants and small businesses.

Syft’s software lets customers combine data from several financial sources, including Stripe, Shopify, Square, Gusto, and Excel, to create personalised reports, visualisations, and comparisons. Additionally, small organisations use it for data quality verification, reporting automation, and budgeting and forecasting.

By integrating Syft’s capabilities into Xero, the platform will provide small businesses with solid insights, real-time analysis, multi-entity reporting, and long-term cash flow forecasts.

Although Syft will continue to be offered independently to non-Xero clients, the acquisition expands Xero’s portfolio of products in important regions like the US, UK, and Australia.

Read also: Nigerian fintech giant Risevest enters Kenyan market

Xero CEO’s remark

The CEO of Xero, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, underlined that Syft’s proficiency in cloud analytics would strengthen Xero’s goal of assisting small businesses worldwide.

As part of the agreement, Syft, which employs over 70 people mostly in South Africa, will switch to Xero.

Cassidy remarked, “We’re thrilled to have the Syft team join us and use their knowledge to expand our worldwide reach.”This transaction also demonstrates the strength of the South African IT sector, as Syft becomes the latest in a long line of local companies luring foreign takeovers. Other examples include the acquisitions of Reflector Marketing by Kenya-based Baobab Network and PyaSpace by US-based Deel.