Mint, also known as Intuit Mint (styled in its logo as intuit mint with dotted 't' characters in "intuit" and undotted 'i' characters) and formerly known as Mint.com, was a personal financial management website and mobile app for the US and Canada produced by Intuit, Inc. (which also produces TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Credit Karma).[2]
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Personal finance, software |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founder | Aaron Patzer |
| Defunct | March 23, 2024 |
| Fate | Merged with Credit Karma |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, California, United States |
Area served | United States, Canada |
| Products | Web application, mobile application |
Number of employees | 35; before acquired by Intuit in 2009[1] |
| Parent | Intuit |
| Website | mint.intuit.com |
Mint.com was originally created by Aaron Patzer and provided account aggregation through a deal with Yodlee, but switched to using Intuit's own system for connecting to accounts after it was purchased by Intuit in 2009.[3] It was later renamed from "Mint.com" to just "Mint". Mint's primary service allows users to track bank, credit card, investment, and loan balances and transactions through a single user interface, as well as create budgets and set financial goals.[4][5]
In 2010, Mint.com said it could connect with more than 16,000 US and Canadian financial institutions, and to support more than 17 million individual financial accounts.[6] In 2016, Mint.com reported to have over 20 million users.[7]
Intuit announced Mint would be shutting down on December 31, 2023, and prompted its users to move to its Credit Karma product.[8] This was later changed to March 23, 2024.[9]
Investment and finances
editMint raised over $31 million in venture capital funding from DAG Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and First Round Capital,[10][11] as well as from angel investors including Ram Shriram, an early investor in Google.[12] The latest round of $14 million was closed on August 4, 2009,[13] and reported by CEO Aaron Patzer as preemptive.[14] TechCrunch later pegged the valuation of Mint at $140 million.[15]
In February 2008, revenue was generated through lead generation, earned via earning referral fees from recommendations of highly personalized, targeted financial products to its users.[16]
Sale
editOn September 13, 2009, TechCrunch reported Intuit would acquire Mint for $170 million.[17] An official announcement was made the following day.
On November 2, 2009, Intuit announced its acquisition of Mint.com was complete. The former CEO of Mint.com, Aaron Patzer, was named vice president and general manager of Intuit's personal finance group, responsible for Mint.com and all Quicken online, desktop, and mobile offerings.[5] Patzer further added the features of the online product Mint.com would be incorporated into the Intuit's Quicken desktop product, and vice versa, as two collaborative aspects of the Intuit Personal Finance team.[18] Patzer left Intuit in December 2012.[19]
Controversial practices
editSecurity
editMint asks users to provide both the usernames and the passwords to their bank accounts, credit cards, and other financial accounts, which Mint then stores in its databases in a decryptable format. This raised concerns that if the Mint databases were ever hacked, both usernames and passwords would become available to rogue third parties. Some banks support a separate "access code" for read-only access to financial information, which reduces the risk to some degree.[20][21]
In January 2017, Intuit and JPMorgan Chase settled a longstanding dispute, and agreed to develop software where Chase customers send their data, for financial purposes, to Mint without having Intuit store customers' names and passwords. It was also agreed Intuit would never sell Chase's customer data.[22]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Everything You Wanted To Know About Startup Building But Were Afraid To Ask". TechCrunch. October 7, 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
- ^ "Can Mint be used outside of the U.S.?". Archived from the original on 2011-01-26.
- ^ Ellis, Blake (December 2, 2010). "Yodlee no longer powers Mint.com's data aggregation tools". CNN.
- ^ "Mint.com Now Tracks Cash and Pending Transactions". Mashable. Retrieved 2010-04-19.
- ^ a b "Intuit Completes Acquisition of Mint.com". Intuit. November 2, 2009.
- ^ Martha, Shaughnessy (19 April 2010). "Using Intuit's Technology Doubles Bank Access, Completes Users' Experience". Mint.com press release. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
- ^ "Mint by the Numbers: Which User Are You?". Mint.com. 6 April 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
Over this decade, we've grown to include over 20 million users!
- ^ Ford, Brady (November 1, 2023). "Intuit Is Closing Personal-Finance App Mint, Shifts Users to Credit Karma". Bloomberg News.
- ^ Gravier, Elizabeth; Suknanan, Jasmin (2024-03-22). "Mint is about to go away — here are some alternative budget apps to consider". CNBC. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
- ^ Vivek (May 23, 2007). "MyMint.com acquires Mint.com; raises $5 million". Startup Squad. Archived from the original on November 8, 2008. Retrieved October 18, 2007.
- ^ Cutler, Kim-Mai (August 12, 2009). "Mint.com rakes in $14 Million in third round of funding". VentureBeat.
- ^ Marshall, Matt (October 16, 2007). "Mint, online money manager, raises $4.7M". Venture Beat.
- ^ "SEC FORM D". sec.gov. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
- ^ Kincaid, Jason (August 12, 2009). "Full Details On Mint's $14 Million Series C Round". Tech Crunch.
- ^ Arrington, Michael (September 2, 2009). "Mint is Worth A Mint: $140 Million Valuation". Tech Crunch.
- ^ "How Mint's SmartSave Savings Engine Works". Mint.com. October 11, 2007. Archived from the original on February 14, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
Mint does make a small referral fee from advertisers on some offers. That's what keeps Mint free.
- ^ Arrington, Michael (September 13, 2009). "Intuit To Acquire (Former TechCrunch50 Winner) Mint For $170 Million". Tech Crunch.
- ^ "Intuit Completes Acquisition of Mint.com". The Quicken Blog. November 2, 2009. Archived from the original on May 11, 2010.
- ^ "LinkedIn.com – Aaron Patzer". Mint.com. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
- ^ "ING Direct Launches 'Read-Only' Access Codes for Financial Aggregation". 2011-05-26. Archived from the original on 2015-02-24. Retrieved 2013-09-28.
- ^ "Could mint.com be more secure, and if so, how?". IT Security Stack Exchange. Retrieved 2013-09-28.
- ^ "Chase, Mint reach deal for faster, more secure data-sharing". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
Further reading
edit- "Revealed: Mint.com Could Soon Fire Back At Simple With A Debit Card Of Its Own". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
- "Mint.com, a Finance Site, Raises $15 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
- "For Mint.com, More Money in the Bank". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
- "What is Mint.com and how has it developed?". Coinpress.io. Archived from the original on 19 August 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.