Atlanta-based marketing technology giant Mailchimp is set to sell to global financial technology platform Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) for $12 billion, according to a Sept. 13 announcement.
Intuit, which makes TurboTax, QuickBooks and Credit Karma, plans to create an end-to-end customer growth platform for small and mid-sized businesses, which is Mailchimp’s main customer base.
“Together, Mailchimp and QuickBooks will help solve small- and mid-market businesses’ biggest barriers to growth, getting and retaining customers,” Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi said in a statement. “Expanding our platform to be at the center of small- and mid-market business growth helps them overcome their most important financial challenges.”
Mailchimp, founded in 2001 and led by CEO Ben Chestnut, began with email marketing solutions then evolved into marketing automation using artificial intelligence for small businesses.
The high-growth startup is an Atlanta success story and an oddity in the technology industry. Unlike most startups, Mailchimp is completely bootstrapped and hasn’t raised any outside venture capital. It has 800 employees in Atlanta and 1,200 total.
The sale announcement comes as Mailchimp is gearing up to relocate its headquarters from Ponce City Market to a 300,000-square-foot headquarters in a nearby development at 760 Ralph McGill at the end of 2022.
