From bootstrapping to global leadership: How DataSnipper is transforming audit

“I hate my job. Can you build me a tool to make my life easier?” This was the question that led Maarten Alblas and Jonas Ruyter to create global software company, DataSnipper.

In 2017, the duo sat down in a bar in Amsterdam to have a beer with a friend. “He had just started working in audit at KPMG,” explains Alblas.

“His manager had given him this massive spreadsheet with 500 different line items. He’d spent the past two days searching through invoices, bank statements, and receipts, cross-checking the data. He knew we worked in software and asked for help.”

Alblas, a gifted coder working at AI consultancy Xomnia, and Ruyter, who worked in tech sales at employee benefits platform Benify, joined forces with software engineer Kai Bakker. They spent two years talking to auditors, working out how to take the pain out of reconciliation. They hoped the tool would be useful to their friend and “maybe a handful of auditors in the Netherlands,” says Alblas.

But when they started showing potential customers their tool, they were amazed by the response.

“People loved using it,” says Alblas. “We won KPMG in the Netherlands then word spread and soon we were in the U.K. and Germany too. It didn’t take long to realize that this was a global problem within audit, and that the world is a very big place.”

“We knew we could scale even faster with more money and the right advice”

The trio bootstrapped the business for the first four years. “During Covid, we started doing demos via video call,” says Alblas.

The company worked out that it could manage remote installations anywhere in the world, and annual recurring revenues climbed from $1M to $10M by early 2022. “We knew we could scale even faster with more money and the right advice,” says Alblas.

“The trust built up very quickly, and in a matter of two weeks, we went from zero to what felt like not only the beginning of a partnership, but that of a friendship.”

After reading about the firm online, Ruyter decided to contact Insight Partners and reached out to Vice President Alessandro Luciano directly. DataSnipper had offers from several investors, but the founders were impressed by Insight’s operational support and the firm’s alignment with DataSnipper’s long-term vision. The team also felt a strong fit with Managing Director Matt Gatto and Luciano. “The trust built up very quickly, and in a matter of two weeks, we went from zero to what felt like not only the beginning of a partnership, but that of a friendship,” says Luciano.

By September 2022, DataSnipper had closed its first funding round with Insight. That capital helped the company make its move into the U.S. market and establish a New York office.

First Amsterdam, then the world

Unlike many European tech firms, DataSnipper has a large presence in the U.S. “A lot of European companies ask us how we did it,” says Vidya Peters, DataSnipper’s CEO. “You need American boots on the ground, and our first critical hire was the most important thing we did.”

To better align with buyer expectations in the U.S., Insight’s Onsite team helped DataSnipper strategically review its pricing for its new market.

“We waited five years before we opened that [New York] office,” adds Alblas. “Sometimes startups make that move too early, before they can truly invest in the team.” DataSnipper is now replicating this approach in Kuala Lumpur, where it now has an office. “We are expanding within Asia Pacific,” says Peters.

The focus is now on innovation. “We now allow for real-time collaboration and have used AI to create a tool for bringing in data from any cloud application and extracting commonly used fields,” says Peters.

This innovation is vital at a time when the global audit industry faces double-digit attrition. “There’s a massive talent shortage, and it’s created a sense of urgency,” she says. “The hours are long, much of the work is manual, and there are few tools to make the job easier.”

Scale up your career: See all open roles at DataSnipper.

The investor POV

“The company was growing quickly, profitable, with rock-solid customer retention. But it was when we spoke to customers that we found 17 out of 20 gave it a Net Promoter Score of 9/10 or more. That rarely happens in B2B software.”

“DataSnipper had been on our radar since 2019,” says Gatto. “We had been in touch a few times, but the guys were busy building their business. Suddenly, they got in touch and spoke to Luciano, who is based in Europe.”

Within a week of that first interaction, the Insight team had flown to Amsterdam to meet the founders. “In the world of software, these guys really stood out,” says Gatto.

“The company was growing quickly, profitable, with rock-solid customer retention. But it was when we spoke to customers that we found 17 out of 20 gave it a Net Promoter Score of 9/10 or more. That rarely happens in B2B software.”

“Trust is everything, and we really clicked with Matt and Ale. They knew where they could add value without getting in the way.”

Alblas says: “Trust is everything, and we really clicked with Matt and Ale. They knew where they could add value without getting in the way.”

Alblas and his team were excited by the accelerated growth of the company but also worried. “Suddenly, we saw the potential of this thing and thought, ‘What if we screw this up?’” says Alblas. “We had very little experience building companies, so we decided to look for a professional CEO.”

Gatto and his team also helped secure Peters for the role of CEO. “In December 2022, the guys came to us and said that they felt like DataSnipper could benefit from a more experienced CEO,” says Gatto. “This took me by surprise, but I wanted to do what I could to help with the transition.”

Peters’ background made her an ideal fit: She had previously spent several years at Intuit in the small business accounting division, had helped take MuleSoft and Marqeta public, and held various roles from chief marketing officer at MuleSoft to chief operating officer at Marqeta. “The only role she hadn’t had yet was CEO,” says Gatto.

“Founder-led companies don’t usually ask to bring in an external CEO,” says Peters, who took the job in the summer of 2023. “For me, that showed an incredible level of humility, and that set the tone for our partnership.”

“When you create software for an underserved customer, and they love it, that’s pretty special.”

When Peters saw the DataSnipper software, she was “blown away.” “I couldn’t believe how intuitive it was to use,” she says. “When you create software for an underserved customer, and they love it, that’s pretty special.”

Today, Alblas and Ruyter remain actively involved in strategy and product roadmaps.

Insight also leveraged its network to find that first “critical hire” that Peters credits for the company’s success in the U.S.: Lydia Rahill, who serves as the company’s VP of Sales, the Americas. “We worked with Jonas to think through the best team setup for the U.S., balancing the desire for a scrappy start with wanting to be deliberate,” says Luciano.

“No software company can succeed globally without cracking the U.S.,” says Peters. “We hired a leader who understood the culture, the style of conversation, and knew how to navigate any hidden pushbacks. That first hire was critical, as [Rahill] then built a team of talented people around her.”

“Our strategy is a living, breathing thing”

DataSnipper raised its Series B earlier in 2024, securing $100M. This funding will help the company further build out its AI capabilities to improve auditor efficiency.

“Insight has been amazing,” says Peters. “This is one of the strengths of a great investment team. They are always looking for great companies, and when they find something that complements what we do, they make an introduction.”

Above all, Peters and the team intend to stay agile in a fast-changing industry.

Alblas adds: “Marginal copycat solutions have come up, but we hear from clients that their products aren’t anywhere near ours. They don’t solve the breadth and depth of problems we do, and we continue to launch new products to widen the gap.”

“In the last three years, we have seen exponential growth,” says Alblas. “We now have 500,000 users across 125 countries, from Mexico to Mongolia.”

Peters has quickly adapted the product roadmap, pricing, and go-to-market strategies to ensure DataSnipper stays in the lead. “Our strategy is a living, breathing thing. We may be a ScaleUp, but we can change and pivot as fast as a startup.”