Celebrating stories from our South African Xero community as we look forward to what comes next

Reflecting on Xero’s growth in South Africa over the last four years, we started as a small but committed team whose ambitions quickly outgrew our little workspace that stands just across from the new office that we gathered in to celebrate last week.

During our journey, we’ve been fortunate to meet amazing businesses and partners. Nurturing these relationships is really important to everyone at Xero, which is why it's been inspirational to see these small businesses, accounting firms and app partners grow and thrive both locally and internationally.?

We loved bringing our Xero friends and many of our partners together in our beautiful new office to celebrate and reflect on our collective growth over the last few years.

(2019)

(2022)

Alderman James Vos, City of Cape Town's Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth joined us and talked about the participation of organisations driving tech adoption in Cape Town.

"Cape Town has fast become the tech capital of Africa. Innovation, technology, and collaboration are all key to preparing our people for the jobs of the future. When I look at the Xero team and the work that they have done, I see people that are hungry to make a difference. That's the magic of Cape Town, we don't wait for things to happen but rather work together to do it ourselves.”?

“The pandemic has made us take stock of what we do in our businesses so that we can reimagine the way we live, work and play. By providing solutions to complex problems and contributing to job creation, players like Xero help us build an economy of hope and confidence."?

Driving digital and innovating to support our communities?

One thing that has remained consistent throughout our journey is our commitment to innovation. Creating digital tools that help accountants and small businesses to thrive. Before joining Xero I founded an accounting practice and we were actually the first ever totally cloud firm in SA! I’m sure when most of us in the industry look back, it’s incredible to think how much time we spent on tasks that have now been revolutionised by technology.?

That’s why so much of our time at Xero is focussed on freeing businesses up from these tasks. From our VAT integration with SARS to allow seamless eFiling, and time saving bank feeds with leading players like Nedbank and Investec, to opening up our APIs and supporting South African apps to join our global App Store. And our recently launched payroll integration with SARS, allowing accountants to file employee tax declarations more easily.?

Transcending the transactional for business growth

Speaking at the event, one of our Xero Accounting Partner Advisory Committee members, Willem Haarhoff - CEO at digital accounting firm DoughGetters - reflected on their journey.

"To us, Xero is not just another accounting system, it's a digital accounting platform that enables endless possibilities through data. One of their core values is around being ‘human’ and we have seen them go beyond the typical transactional business relationship, where we purchase a piece of software and resell it to our clients. Partnering with the team allows us to do so much more. It's one of the integral tools in our app stack and helps us run a better business. Together we are able to create magic."

Helping local businesses go global

We’ve continued to grow our App Store and ecosystem of connected tech, so it’s great to see Xero app partners like Syft Analytics grow internationally and reach customers all over the world. Co-Founder and CEO Vangelis Kyriazis shared more about their growth during the event.

"Looking back now, our decision to integrate with Xero back in 2018 was probably one of our most significant decisions that changed the course of our business. Through the partnership, Syft has grown to support about 17,000 businesses around the globe. We currently operate in about 30 countries globally in which Xero customers are connected to Syft. A lot of this tremendous growth has been driven by being part of the Xero community who have become true partners in our journey. This year we've been exhibiting with Xero in Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK."

Continued collaboration

Seeing many of our partners come together at our office - from innovative apps and the country’s leading accounting firms, to local government, banks and small businesses - demonstrates to me how important collaboration is. By working together our country has the potential to revolutionise the world of business through digitisation, innovation, expanding the taxpayer base and creating fairer trading conditions.?

It is only with this greater collaboration that we can start to drive progress and accelerate growth in our small business economy.