Intuit, Kiva Offer Financing to Underserved Small Businesses Through QuickBooks Financing Platform

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Intuit Financial Freedom Foundation Donates $50,000 to Kiva Zip, Pledging Half of Funds to Women-owned Small Businesses

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq:INTU) and Kiva Zip.org have partnered to make it easier for underserved small businesses to obtain loans through the QuickBooks Financing Platform.

To further bolster the initiative, the Intuit Financial Freedom Foundation (IFFF) has established a $50,000 loan matching program on Kiva Zip, half of which will be designated for women-owned small businesses in support of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. Visitors to KivaZip.org can choose a small business owner that they want to support with a loan of $25 or more. That loan helps to crowdfund the borrower’s full loan request. IFFF’s loan matching will match what the public crowdfunds, doubling the public’s impact. As a result, underserved small businesses seeking credit through the QuickBooks Financing platform could get funded twice as quickly. Small business owners featured on Kiva Zip include artisans, immigrants, refugees, veterans, small farmers, neighborhood shops and home-based businesses across the country.

“We are excited about our partnership with Kiva Zip and to offer small businesses the critical capital they need to start and grow their businesses,” said Jeffrey Kaufman, business leader of QuickBooks Financing at Intuit. “This platform serves a segment of small businesses who previously had no, or very limited, opportunities to get the funding they needed. Additionally, we are so pleased the Intuit Financial Freedom Foundation is joining with QBF to help Intuit do even more to support small businesses, in particular helping women-owned small businesses to thrive.”

Kiva is filling a critical lending gap for small business entrepreneurs across the country. The vast majority of small business owners and budding entrepreneurs cannot access the capital they need to start up or expand. They are denied loans for any number of reasons: the loan amount they seek is too small, their business is too young, their plan is too innovative or their credit history is too short or damaged. Kiva Zip loans are offered at 0% interest with no fees, and are available regardless of credit score or type of small business.

Kiva Zip Loan Process

Kiva Zip loans are available up to $10,000. The public helps fund the loans by crowdfunding in increments of $25 using the online platform. Kiva Zip uses an entrepreneur’s network as a measure of creditworthiness. Borrowers start by inviting family and friends to launch fundraising efforts and, after reaching a designated threshold, the Kiva Zip community takes care of the rest. More than 90% of loan requests are fully funded, which is rare among crowdfunding sites.

“We are thrilled by our partnership with Intuit and its foundation,” said Jonny Price, senior director at Kiva. “Kiva borrowers have an 89% repayment rate, which means that once the loans are repaid, we can recycle the foundation’s funding to match additional loans, further maximizing the impact we make for small businesses.”

Intuit QuickBooks Financing

QuickBooks Financing is a marketplace of small business finance products covering the full spectrum of credit offerings including, short- and long-term loans, lines of credit, invoice financing and Small Business Administration loans. All financing partners and products are fully vetted by Intuit. In May, Intuit established a $100 million fund in partnership with OnDeck that will give small business owners a fast, easy way to help grow their business through a simple application process.

The partnership with Kiva is another example of how Intuit QuickBooks Financing is finding new, innovative ways to offer small businesses faster, more efficient access to capital.

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About Kiva

Kiva.org is the world’s first and largest crowdfunding platform for social good with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. By lending at little as $25, anyone can help a borrower start or grow a business, go to school, access clean energy and realize their potential. Since 2005, Kiva and their growing global community of 1.3 million lenders have crowdfunded nearly $750 million in microloans to 1.7 million entrepreneurs in 86 countries, with a 98% repayment rate.

Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED)

Women’s Entrepreneurship Day is a day on which the work of women entrepreneurs is observed and discussed, held on the nineteenth of November of each year. The inaugural event was held in New York City at the United Nations, with additional events being held simultaneously in several other countries. 144 nations overall recognized the first WED in 2014. It was described by Fortune Magazine as “a global movement to celebrate and support female founders and shed light on some of their challenges.” Forbes Magazine wrote that the intention was also “to mobilize a global network of female business owners, entrepreneurs and change makers who support and empower this community of women entrepreneurs and their businesses.”

About Intuit Inc.

Intuit Inc. creates business and financial management solutions that simplify the business of life for small businesses, consumers and accounting professionals.

Its flagship products and services include QuickBooks®, and TurboTax® and Mint.com, which make it easier to manage small businesses and payroll processing; tax preparation and filing; and personal finance. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants.

Founded in 1983, Intuit had revenue of $4.2 billion in its fiscal year 2015, with approximately 7,700 employees in major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Australia, and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.

Intuit Inc.
Steve Sharpe, 650-224-2362
stephen_sharpe@intuit.com
or
Access Communications
Jen Garcia, 415-844-6244
jgarcia@accesspr.com

Source: Intuit Inc.

Released November 19, 2015