Intuit buys email marketing platform Mailchimp for $12 billion, making it the biggest-ever deal for a bootstrapped startup company

Intuit has acquired email marketing company Mailchimp for $12 billion in cash and stock, the two companies said in an announcement Monday. The acquisition makes it the biggest-ever deal for a privately-held bootstrapped tech startup company, as Mailchimp never took outside funding since its inception two decades ago. Mailchimp is used to send marketing emails and automated messages, create targeted campaigns, facilitate reporting and analytics, and sell online.

Intuit, which is known for financial service offerings like TurboTax and Credit Karma, said the acquisition will help the company to accelerate its vision to provide an end-to-end customer growth platform for small and mid-market businesses. This acquisition marks Intuit’s largest acquisition to date. Last year, the company purchased Credit Karma for more than $8 billion.

“Together, Mailchimp and QuickBooks will become a powerful engine for small and mid-market business customers to get, engage and retain their customers, run their businesses, optimize cash flow and remain compliant,” said Alex Chriss, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Intuit Small Business and Self-Employed Group. “Today, QuickBooks helps more than 7 million small and mid-market businesses get paid fast, access capital, pay their employees, and grow in an omnichannel world. Mailchimp’s addition will bring speed and velocity to these efforts, with the acceleration of mid-market expansion opportunities and global growth for both brands.”

Founded in 2001 by Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius, the Atlanta, Georgia-based Mailchimp is used by millions of businesses and individuals – from community organizations to Fortune 100 companies. Mailchimp also offices in Brooklyn, Oakland, Vancouver, London, and Santa Monica, Mailchimp has 1,200+ employees and is privately held.

Intuit, which is known for financial service offerings like TurboTax and Credit Karma, said it will use the acquisition to accelerate growth among small business clients. It marks the company’s largest acquisition to date. Last year, the company purchased Credit Karma for more than $8 billion.

In an email obtained to customers, which was obtained by Tech Startups, Mailchimp Co-founder and CEO Ben Chestnut said: “My partner Dan Kurzius and I founded Mailchimp nearly 20 years ago. We’ll never forget the early days in a tiny office we rented on the west side of Atlanta. I sketched logo after logo before finally deciding that the monkey with a mail carrier hat struck just the right tone, while Dan sat next to me writing code and talking with customers.”

Chestnut continued, “While our ownership will change once the transaction closes, which we expect to happen prior to the end of Intuit’s second-quarter fiscal 2022, our platform will stay Mailchimp through and through: the same user-friendly products and tools, the same resources, and support, and the same brand you know and love. In fact, our goal is for all of these things to get even better as part of Intuit.”