Why Intuit Bought Deserve—and What’s Coming Next

This week in fintech feels like one of those moments where a lot is happening just below the surface. Major players are repositioning, platforms are quietly changing hands, and growth strategies that used to be niche—like affiliate marketing—are suddenly front and center.

From Intuit’s stealthy acquisition of Deserve to MoneyLion’s surprising early exit from public markets, these moves aren't flashy on the surface—but they signal much bigger shifts underway. Add in the rise of performance-based growth tactics in banking, and it’s clear: fintech's next chapter is being written by infrastructure, distribution, and precision.

Let’s break it all down.

🚨 Intuit Buys Into Credit: What’s Behind the Deserve Deal?

Intuit just made a strategic play by acquiring the technology and select team members of Deserve, a mobile-first credit card platform. Known for its cloud-native, API-first architecture, Deserve brings the kind of agile infrastructure Intuit needs to level up its financial services stack—especially for small businesses.

Why does this matter? Because over 80% of small businesses fail due to cash flow issues. Intuit, already a household name in accounting (QuickBooks) and personal finance (Credit Karma), is clearly eyeing a future where it can offer embedded finance tools, including credit products, directly to its small biz customers.

The deal is expected to close in Q3 FY25. No financials were disclosed, but the team in Palo Alto and Pune joining Intuit signals more than just a tech asset purchase—it’s a bet on people and platform.

OUR TAKE
We’re in speculation territory, but here’s what might be going on:

• Product Expansion Play: Intuit could be planning to roll out its own small business credit or debit card using Deserve’s rails. Imagine a QuickBooks-branded card with automated cash flow insights.

• A Bargain Buy? Deserve may have been struggling financially—this could’ve been a discounted acquisition.

• A Credit Karma Power-Up: Deserve’s infrastructure + Credit Karma’s reach = potential disruption in the card-issuing game, putting pressure on Marqeta or Galileo.

• Less Likely: Using Deserve to spin up new lending products or marketplaces might muddy Credit Karma’s neutrality.

No matter the path, one thing’s clear: Intuit’s building something bigger in fintech, and this is just a piece of the puzzle.

🧩 MoneyLion Says Goodbye to Wall Street, Hello to Gen Digital

In a surprise acceleration, MoneyLion stockholders just approved a $1B all-cash acquisition by cybersecurity heavyweight Gen Digital—the parent of Norton, LifeLock, and Avast. The deal, initially expected to close in 2026, is now wrapping up next week.

MoneyLion exits the public markets with a solid 2024 under its belt: $546M in revenue and a rare $9M profit. The company has been one of the few fintechs to successfully blend consumer finance and embedded finance at scale.

So what’s Gen Digital getting?

• 20M+ users

• A high-performing AI-driven financial app

• “Engine by MoneyLion,” a B2B embedded finance and media platform born from its acquisition of Even Financial

OUR TAKE
This is a big shift—but also, a visibility loss. As MoneyLion gets absorbed into Gen Digital, we’ll likely lose transparency on one of the most interesting B2B platforms in fintech.

Here’s what we do know from the latest filings:

• Engine’s Core Mission: Connect consumers with loans, cards, savings accounts, and insurance across 1,300+ enterprise partners.

• Strong Growth: Powered by media and marketplace revenue, Engine has been a reliable, high-margin performer.

• Strategic Importance: It’s the tech layer beneath many of MoneyLion’s embedded finance moves—and likely a crown jewel in this acquisition.

Let’s hope Gen sees Engine for the asset it is and doesn’t bury it under layers of Norton antivirus marketing.

📈 Affiliate Marketing Isn’t a Side Hustle—It’s Banking’s New Growth Engine

Affiliate marketing has quietly become a fintech and banking powerhouse—and banks like Iowa-based Bank Iowa are proving the point. The $2.2B bank doubled its CD portfolio by partnering with CD Valet, a digital affiliate marketplace for deposit products.

It’s part of a broader shift: what was once a complementary marketing tactic is now a core acquisition engine.

Why It Works:

• Late-Funnel Goldmine: Affiliate traffic is high-intent. These users are comparing rates and ready to act—not just browsing.

• Pay-for-Performance: No upfront ad costs. Banks pay only when someone opens an account or gets approved for a product.

• Scale & Consistency: Affiliate channels deliver volume month after month across credit cards, loans, deposits, and more.

• Precision Targeting: Partners are often niche experts—think travel rewards blogs, debt consolidation influencers, or B2B finance reviewers.

• The Creator Economy: YouTube stars, TikTok explainers, and podcast hosts are driving massive volume via affiliate partnerships, thanks to audience trust.

OUR TAKE
We’re big believers in affiliate marketing—and this article only scratches the surface. A few insights from our team:

• The Real Payouts: It’s not just $100–$250 per conversion. We've seen subprime card approvals at $30–$80 and business card payouts north of $1,000.

• Finance Is the Giant: Of the projected $12B in U.S. affiliate spend for 2025, we estimate consumer finance alone will account for nearly $6B. That’s half the market.

• Free Branding: Every listing on a comparison table or “Top 10” blog is free visibility—brand impressions with no ad spend.

• Fintech Dependency: For many neobanks and lenders, affiliate drives over 50% of new customers. It’s not optional; it’s existential.

• Barriers Remain: Breaking into the top affiliate channels isn’t easy. It takes deep relationships, compliance muscle, and placement savvy—exactly why we launched NMG, our affiliate management agency. (Need help? Hit us up.)

These aren’t just headlines—they're breadcrumbs leading to fintech’s future.

• Intuit’s bet on Deserve could foreshadow a new breed of small business financial tools.

• Gen Digital’s snap-up of MoneyLion may usher in a cybersecurity-first approach to embedded finance.

• And affiliate marketing’s surge shows that performance, not just product, is what will define winners in this space.

As always, we’ll keep tracking the plays behind the plays—and bringing you the sharpest analysis on how it all connects.