The personal finance software space is certainly large and lucrative -- especially as seen with Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU)'s Quicken. Yet, the software is not necessarily easy and has tons of features that are likely to be overwhelming.

Well, Mint.com sees this as an opportunity and operates a fairly simple web-based personal finance site that uses some cool Web 2.0 features. In fact, the company has announced that it has raised $12 million in venture capital and the lead investor is Benchmark Capital, which is a tier-1 firm.

On several occasions, I've talked to Mint.com's CEO and founder, Aaron Patzer. He has provided me with a demo of the system -- and it's super easy to use (funny enough, he even gave me a demo of his personal account).

Something else: Mint.com has found ways to analyze your finances to provide cost-savings, such as with credit cards and so on. Actually, in light of the slowing economy, this is definitely attractive. After all, since the site's launch in September 2007, there are now more than 160,000 users. What's more, Mint.com has identified more than $100 million in potential savings.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Mint.com prints up $12 million originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.