The maker of TurboTax, QuickBooks and Mint, Intuit has announced an agreement to acquire Credit Karma, the consumer technology platform with more than 100 million members in the U.S., Canada and U.K., for approximately $7.1 billion in cash and stock.
The acquisition means that Intuit can accelerate its mission of powering prosperity around the world. Credit Karma, totaled nearly $1 billion in unaudited revenue in calendar year 2019, up 20% from the previous year.
Sasan Goodarzi, CEO of Intuit stated: “We wake up every day trying to help consumers make ends meet. By joining forces with Credit Karma, we can create a personalised financial assistant that will help consumers find the right financial products, put more money in their pockets and provide insights and advice, enabling them to buy the home they’ve always dreamed about, pay for education and take the vacation they’ve always wanted.”
The coalition brings together two technology leaders, sharing a goal to help solve the personal finance problems, regardless of financial situations. The firm’s tackle issues such as managing debt, maximising savings, and creating greater access to better credit cards and loans, with an aim to put more money in consumers’ pockets.
Kenneth Lin, Founder and CEO of Credit Karma added: “We started Credit Karma with a goal to build a trusted destination for all consumers, to make financial progress regardless of where they are in life.
“We saw the opportunity to enrich people’s financial lives through transparency, simplicity and certainty.”
Household debt in the United States hit $14.1 trillion including, among other sources, $9.6 trillion in mortgage debt, nearly $1 trillion in credit card debt and $1.5 trillion in student loan debt.
In addition, 23 million people relied on at least one payday loan in 2018 to get faster access to cash.
Intuit and Credit Karma will attempt to make it simpler for consumers to make better decisions through a consumer finance platform that works as a personalised financial assistant. The platform provides consumers with transparent access to critical personal finance information such as customers income, spending, and credit history.
The result of the platform will be a complete financial profile that puts the power in consumers’ hands so they can take the steps necessary to improve financial health and maximise money.
Lin concluded: We could not have picked a better partner than Sasan and the Intuit team to accelerate our mission to champion financial progress for our members.
“Together, the complementary strengths of our combined companies will help us to invest in innovation, build faster and deliver products our consumers expect and deserve.”
The platform finds the right financial products by matching consumers with pre-approved offers on loans and credit cards; putting more money in customers pockets by connecting them to higher yield savings accounts; and provide insights and advice to help consumers make better decisions about improving credit scores and money issues.
