US fintech giant Intuit is substantially expanding its operations in Israel, Intuit executive VP and CTO Tayloe Stansbury has told "Globes." He said that the company would increase its current 160 R&D employees in Israel to 400-500 during the next three years. The company will move from its current offices in Hod Hasharon to a new office building still to be selected.
Stanbury refrained from saying how much the company planned to invest in Israel, but external estimates are at least $50 million a year. According to Stansbury, he is also meeting with Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) companies and the possibility of acquiring such a company is under consideration. "We'll build ourselves in Israel both organically and through acquisitions; it will happen in time," Stansbury declared.
Intuit has been operating in Israel since 2014, when it acquired Check, a company founded by Israel entrepreneurs that developed a popular accounts payment application, for $360 million. Intuit's current R&D center is based on Check; it integrated Check's activity (under the name Mint) as one of its four product lines. One year later, in 2015, Intuit acquired cyber defense company Porticor for an estimated $10 million; Porticor's technology became the basis of Intuit's cyber defense.
Intuit, founded in 1983, introduced the Quicken program, a pioneer in personal bookkeeping, to the market. Intuit later developed financial software systems, which currently include TurboTax for managing tax returns for small businesses, and QuickBooks for payments and payroll management. The API tools developed by the company enable external fintech companies to interface with QuickBooks and expand their target markets. Users of this option include Israeli companies such as Bluevine and FundBox, which derive a substantial proportion of their revenue from it.
The current direction of Intuit's development is more effective use of data. Intuit collect its customers' financial data, makes them anonymous, and then uses AI and machine learning technology to generate personalized business insights. Among other things, it is likely to provide a business with its projected cash flow and points in time when it is liable to encounter difficulties. "Thanks to the data, we can do a better job of estimating this than the business's bank," Stansbury boasts. Intuit registered 170 patents in this area and is developing it with even greater intensity.
Another important area in which Intuit is investing is information security, mainly for internal needs. Intuit's main asset is its customers' accounting data, and if this is leaked or damaged, the result is liable to be catastrophic for the company, which is trying to prevent this by strengthening its cyber defense. Information security and artificial intelligence are the two reasons why Intuit is tripling its staff in Israel: "AI is the direction of the next generation of our software. Israel is replete with possibilities in this area, and that's the reason why we plan to grow here," Stansbury says.
Recruiting hundreds of engineers and programmers is not an easy task in the Israel market, where competition for topnotch personnel is stiff. According to Stansbury, however, Intuit is experienced in competing for personnel: "We have development centers in all of the difficult markets: Silicon Valley, Bangalore in India, and here. We're managing to cope with the competition, among other things because of our cool technology and also because of the company's strong organizational culture," Stansbury explains.
Intuit is especially proud of the high proportion of women at the company, although they are still a minority. Women comprise 28% of engineers and development workers, double the US average. The proportion of women among Intuit's Israeli staff is even higher - 35% of engineers and 40% of senior management.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 26, 2018
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