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Since taking over as CEO in 2019, Intuit's Sasan Goodarzi has made a string of major acquisitions, buying up Credit Karma for $7.1 billion in 2020 and Mailchimp for $12 billion last year.

Why the deals mattered: The acquisitions were aimed at getting Intuit's customers to use the company's products daily rather than once a month or a few times per year. 

Of Note: Mailchimp gave Intuit's critical small business customers the tool of targeted marketing. Credit Karma gave Intuit's retail customers financial products integrated with its TurboTax software. 

Lucinda spoke to Goodarzi on Wednesday to see what's next for the company, both in terms of M&A and longer term strategy. This conversation has been edited in places for clarity.

Are you seeing more M&A opportunities, now that valuations are down?

Public company valuations are much more attractive, right? And the private valuations are starting to come down. I think the best, for a company like us ... is still ahead, because when the private businesses run out of cash, they have to get valued at a far bigger discount. We believe they will become far more attractive into the spring and summer of next year.

But we're not going to accelerate acquisitions for the sake of doing it because things are cheaper. It's really about time-to-market.

You've talked about blockchain as promising technology. Where do you see the opportunity for Intuit?

The biggest things that we are investing in is decentralized technologies and blockchain, in addition to machine learning. We're not only investing but running experiments.

What we're really interested in with decentralized technologies is the ability to make all of this seamless: To completely automate the process of estimating, invoicing, and to create instant payments.

Believe it or not, 70% out of $2 trillion in invoices are still getting paid by check on our platform.

We think adoption will be two to three years out.  I don't think it's 10 years out.

Bitcoin, but only for experimental reasons, not for investing reasons.

1 big thing: Intuit's CEO talks blockchain and deals

Photo illustration of Intuit's CEO, Sasan Goodarzi, with abstract shapes.

Photo illustration: Allie Carl/Axios. Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Jiko, an Oakland, Calif.-based startup that owns a federally regulated bank, raised $40 million in Series B financing led by Red River West, Ryan writes. 

Why it matters: As everyone hunts for yield in today's bear market, Jiko provides an attractive alternative to traditional banks by converting customer deposits into U.S. Treasury bills.

Flashback: Founded in 2016, the startup made waves in 2020 when it acquired Mid-Central National Bank, a 60-year-old regional bank headquartered in Wadena, Minn.

The acquisition was approved by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Reserve and gave Jiko a national bank charter.

Between the lines: After the Mid-Central deal, Jiko launched a consumer banking app but has since pivoted to the B2B market with its Jiko Money Storage product.

Unlike other banks, Jiko converts customer deposits into government-backed T-bills, giving them quick and low-cost access to yield-generating money storage with immediate liquidity.

Rather than rely on third-party systems, Jiko also built out its own core infrastructure for managing deposits, giving customers the ability to make real-time deposits and move money 24/7. 

Of note: Other investors in the round include Trousdale Ventures, Owen Van Natta, Temaris & Associates, La Maison Partners, BPI France, Airbus Ventures, Anthem Ventures, Upfront Ventures and Radicle Impact.

To date, Jiko has raised $47.7 million in seed and Series A funding.

2. The BFD: Business banking backed by T-bills

Illustration of dollar bills sticking out of a vault door.

Venture capital firm Lux Capital has launched an index for tracking the crypto infrastructure space, Lucinda writes.

Details: Tracking both public companies and tokens, the index's largest constituents include Polygon, Ethereum, PayPal and ChainLink. The index is up 28.7% in the last three months, against the S&P 500's 2.3% decrease and the 6% gain on the Nasdaq's Crypto Index.

Public companies in Lux's index must derive a significant amount of revenue from crypto. That also puts Block and Robinhood on the list.

Grace Isford, a principal with Lux who formed the index in partnership with portfolio company Thematic, purposely left out bitcoin, focusing instead on cryptocurrencies linked to "aggressive developer adoption."

3. Tracking crypto infrastructure

Party Round's turn to capital management (TechCrunch)

Party Round has rebranded itself as Capital. In addition to automating its namesake, party rounds, the company plans to help founders handle their finances.

Africa's fintechs buck the trend (PitchBook)

While the fintech market elsewhere has slowed, Africa appears to be bucking that trend. According to Pitchbook, the space has seen about $1.3 billion invested this year, on track to beat last year's $1.6 billion.

 Celsius execs cashed out $42M in crypto before bankruptcy (CoinDesk)

According to a filing on Wednesday, former CEO Alex Mashinsky, former CSO Daniel Leon and CTO Nuke Goldstein withdrew funds in the form of bitcoin, ether, USDC and CEL tokens.

NFTs owned by Three Arrows Capital to be liquidated (Blockworks)

 Starry Night Capital, the NFT-focused investment fund owned by Three Arrows Capital’s founders, has transferred more than 300 digital collectibles to Teneo, which will liquidate those assets.

4. Credit score

Illustration of positive and negative trend lines coming out of center point.

• Korea Credit Data, a South Korean SME bookkeeping and revenue management software maker, raised $24.7m in Series D extension financing. Fiserv and LG Uplus invested. The deal values to company at $776 million (1.1 trillion KRW). https://axios.link/3Ej91in

• Elpha Secure Technology, a New York City-based cyber insurance startup, raised $20m in Series A funding. Canapi Ventures led the round with participation from Stone Point Ventures, AXIS Capital, State Farm Ventures, The Hartford STAG Ventures, Fermat Capital Management and EOS Venture Partners. https://axios.link/3ElZ3wN

• Blackbird, a web3 loyalty platform for the hospitality industry, raised $11m in a seed round led by Union Square Ventures, Shine Capital and Multicoin Capital. Other backers include Variant, Circle Ventures and IAC. https://axios.link/3V5sDMV

• Solvento, a Mexico City-based payments and credit startup for carriers, raised $5m in seed funding. Ironspring Ventures led and was joined by Quona Capital, Proeza Ventures, Dynamo Ventures, Zenda Capital, Susa Ventures, 9Yards Capital and Supply Chain Collective. https://axios.link/3V9d6vs

• Jingle Pay, a UAE-based consumer super app, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from MoneyGram. MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes is joining the company's board as chairman. https://axios.link/3SFfJnt

• K2 Global, a Singapore-based investor in Moonpay, Coinbase, and Paytm, raised $300m. It invests across fintech, foodtech, consumer tech, deep tech and machine learning. https://axios.link/3SMAJIP

5. Deals of the day

• Finastra, a U.K.-based financial software maker, named Helen Cook as chief people officer. She was previously at Natwest. https://axios.link/3SVYEVQ

• Shares, a London-based social investing app, appointed Venus and Serena Williams ambassadors as they became shareholders in the company. https://axios.link/3fQ4jid

6. It's personnel

Paul Grewal tweets about regulation by enforcement

7. Memes and mumbles

Thanks to Michael Flaherty and Carlos Cunha for today's edits.

Thank you for reading, and remember to ask your friends, family, and T-bills enthusiasts to sign up for our newsletter. 

October 06, 2022

1 big thing: Intuit's CEO talks blockchain and deals