DataDear, an Excel add-in offering two-way connectivity between cloud accounting software and an Excel spreadsheet, was acquired by one of the world’s most prominent financial software companies, Intuit, late last year, and is now being integrated into its accounting offering for small businesses, QuickBooks.

Intuit’s other holdings include TurboTax, personal finance website Mint.com, and Credit Karma, which allows access to users’ credit scores, although many people are probably most familiar with its email marketing platform, Mailchimp.

The acquisition by such a global player of a product developed in Malta is a major indicator of the potential of the local technology sector to create innovative tools with widespread applicability. WhosWho.mt reached out to DataDear to get more insight about how a technology acquisition works and what it means on an operational level. 

DataDear is a product designed and built in Malta and was founded in 2015 with the objective of powering finance professionals to build better solutions on top of the data provided from cloud-based accounting software.

It provides a series of innovative tools which help SMEs transition their business to the cloud without having to reinvent all their internal processes and reports, whilst retaining the ability to push data in the cloud from familiar software such as existing spreadsheets.

Its development is a feather in the cap of Scope, the company spearheading the effort, the University of Malta, which supported it, and the Malta Council for Science and Technology, which through its FUSION fund helped in its creation.

As of last year, DataDear provided its services to around 10,000 clients from 30 different countries, putting Malta in a strategic position with regards to the fintech industry.

The product’s success led to interest from Intuit to purchase the technology for its QuickBooks platform, first announced late last year. Through the global cloud software company’s expertise and resources, DataDear will expand its core mission of empowering finance teams and professionals to work smarter and build better solutions.

Technology acquisition is when the right of use of the software related to the technology is acquired by a third party.

“Entrepreneurs and finance professionals are facing a game-changing evolution in business management. Adopting a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product is the only future and the DataDear Product was specifically created to support the needs that such cloud platforms will create,” said Neville Micallef & Brian Ferris, Owners and Co-Founders of DataDear Software and Scope.

“Embracing this change is key for business owners and professionals to future proof their business and this is where we can help to smooth the transition process at Scope.”

The pair said that DataDear’s mission “has always been to empower finance professionals to build better solutions by connecting their accounting software to Excel,” and expressed their appreciation for their customers’ trust.

“Following Intuit’s technology acquisition of DataDear, we look forward to continuing the pursuit of that mission as part of the Intuit QuickBooks ecosystem in the future,” they said.

“While we have been privileged and pleased to deliver this solution to you, DataDear will be shut down as a standalone service as of 31st October 2022,” although Scope customers will continue to use DataDear and have not been affected by this acquisition.

DataDear connections to Excel will continue to work until that date, after which the connection will no longer be able to sync data. Account data will remain securely stored for a reasonable amount of time, and the spreadsheets and templates users have created with DataDear will remain saved.

Users will continue to have access to those files, however, they will no longer be able to sync data to or from connected software tools.

Any questions can be sent to [email protected] until 31st October 2022.