BANGALORE:
Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) announced its newest program to enable entrepreneurial success through financial literacy and developer partnership for startups across the country called Intuit Circles. Intuit will work towards strengthening the Indian startup ecosystem by leveraging the power of various stakeholders like investors, co- working spaces, incubators, accountants etc. for the prosperity of entrepreneurs.
India has the second largest startup ecosystem in the world and is expected to witness a year on year growth of 10% to 12%. Today we have 40k startups in the country; $34 billion was invested in India since 2014 with 50% of the funds invested in 2017 and Q1 of 2018 alone. Intuit has a long history of working with small businesses and startups globally. Over the years of working with startups, it has been found that one in five startups fail in the first three years because of poor financial management. Lack of financial literacy results in small businesses struggling to manage their cash flow and also get access to capital.
The Intuit Circles program aims to create an ecosystem that is a trusted friend to start-ups throughout their journey, powering their prosperity through innovative products and allows them to develop solutions for Intuit customers by integrating their technology with QuickBooks Online. The program has two key goals:
1) Help startups in their financial management journey by being their preferred software partner of choice.
2) Leverage the unique innovation that such startups have built that solve our customer problems by partnering with them – solutions which complement and strengthen our QuickBooks Online ecosystem.
Through live events and training session, selected participants will learn where they stand, how to track their business day-to-day and get immediate financial insights and how to leverage this data to plan for the future. Intuit will offer the startups that fit the profile, a nine months free subscription of QuickBooks Online, the world’s No.1 accounting software for small businesses. They will also get a 50% discount on the subscription of QuickBooks Online for the next one year.
Additionally, the program provides an introduction to QuickBooks ProAdvisors – accountants who have worked with a large number of start-ups in India. If a startup is looking for an accountant, Intuit will make a connect with one of the many thousands of accountants using QuickBooks Online in India. The startup will then have the choice to procure for a fee the services of these accountants. The accountants will work with these startups, enabling them to be on top of their business and financial management. The participants also get an opportunity to network and be mentored by Intuit leaders.
Intuit will also look partner with startups to leverage their unique innovations to solve customer problems, which complement its products and strengthen its ecosystem. Intuit has the world’s leading small business Apps Store (apps.com) and offer the best in-class developer tools. The Intuit Developer Group is a trusted open platform of choice for developers worldwide to build apps that help small businesses and accountants succeed. Developers are armed with the right tools to create powerful apps that are integrated with the QuickBooks Online platform and help them market their apps and give them access to over 3.6 million QuickBooks Online customers worldwide. Today, there are more than 5000 apps on the platform, of which 600 are published in the app store.
“We are delighted to announce “Intuit Circles” for the startup ecosystem in India,” said Sanket Atal, Managing Director, Intuit India. “Financial literacy skills are integral to entrepreneurial success and without proper guidance or support, startups may find it challenging to make the right decisions to fuel their own success. To alleviate this, we are pleased to collaborate with various stakeholders in the ecosystem to bring us one step further in our efforts to make a positive impact on the Indian startup community.”
The rise of the startup ecosystem opens up numerous ways to work with entrepreneurs who can drive the next growth opportunity for India. Intuit wants to be be the champion of small businesses by powering their prosperity and enabling them to leverage its platform to create solutions that will have real impact.
