Narayan AmmachchiIntuit has agreed to acquire its Brazilian rival ZeroPaper in a deal that will give the U.S. accounting software vendor wide access to the lucrative market of small & medium-sized business clients in South America.
Brasilia-based ZeroPaper offers cloud-based accounting services to small businesses in almost every major city across the South American country. Founded in 2012, it is the brainchild of Brazil’s start-up accelerator 21212, which also invested in the company along with Totvs Ventures.
Once the deal is closed, Intuit will offer its flagship software QuickBooks to ZeroPaper’s clients. There are also talks that Intuit could persuade ZeroPaper clients to migrate to QuikBooks, the accounting software popular with finance professionals across the world.
It seems Intuit, based in Mountain View, California, is primarily focused on capturing ZeroPaper’s vast base of customers. The Brazilian start-up has about 450,000 clients, most of them small and medium in size.
“We founded ZeroPaper with an aim to provide individual entrepreneurs and small businesses with a simple tool to manage their accounting,” stated André Macedo, CEO of ZeroPaper, in a blog post. “With renowned products such as QuickBooks, Quicken and TurboTax, Intuit is one of the most innovative software makers. It is a pleasure to join Intuit.”
Analysts view the acquisition as a shrewd move from Intuit, because Brazil is home to more than 15 million small businesses, many of whom are about to go digital.
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