Xero may have found a path out of the SaaS-pocalypse with its Anthropic deal
The accounting software platform has teamed up with its would-be disruptor. Investors think other battered SaaS names could follow its lead.
Less than two months after a product update by Anthropic prompted fears of a worldwide ‘SaaS-pocalypse’ — an impending doomsday event for traditional software-as-a-service companies — the same USD380 billion-valued AI startup announced a multi-year partnership with one of the largest software companies on the ASX.
Accounting platform Xero was the worst hit stock on the ASX 200 on the day of Anthropic’s fateful reveal in early February, with shares crashing 16%. Last week it officially joined forces with its would-be disruptor.
“One of the challenges the whole software-as-a-service complex has faced has been this perception that AI is going to eat your lunch and your customer base,” Milford portfolio manager Jason Kururangi told Capital Brief.
“It looks like Anthropic has taken the view that they don’t necessarily want to be B2C, and they’d rather be a B2B provider more broadly.”
