SAN FRANCISCO — Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax and Mint, agreed on Monday to pay $7.1 billion for Credit Karma, a start-up that has become one of the most popular financial applications for young consumers.

The deal, which is being paid for with a combination of cash and stock, is aimed at creating a Silicon Valley financial technology company that can serve as an online financial assistant for people, helping them get their credit scores, file their taxes and find new loans and financial products.

“This is very core to what we’ve declared around helping our customers make ends meet and make smart money decisions,” Sasan Goodarzi, Intuit’s chief executive, said in a conference call with analysts.

The acquisition underscores the value of the financial data of ordinary Americans. Credit Karma grew to be worth billions of dollars by giving people access to their credit scores and then using the information to serve them advertisements for new credit card and loans. The start-up said it had more than 2,600 data points on each of its customers, such as their Social Security numbers and outstanding loans.