A History Of PayPal Acquisitions In Fintech

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

PayPal made its biggest ever acquisition today by buying Swedish fintech startup iZettle for $2.2 billion, the financial technology company that offers payments via smartphones and other financial products in Europe and Latin America.

This news comes after iZettle announced that it was planning an IPO, but cofounder Jacob de Geer decided to go in a different direction and said: “Late in the IPO process, PayPal got in touch and showed a serious interest in iZettle.

“By joining the PayPal family we’ll become iZettle with superpowers and jump on a fast track to realise our vision.” The fintech aims to generate $165 million in revenue in 2018, but what will PayPal’s acquisition mean for iZettle.

Here’s a summary of other PayPal acquisitions into the fintech space over the years and with that, see if iZettle will be able to achieve its goals and raise the money it needs to expand to more countries.

Braintree and Venmo

Braintree is currently a division of PayPal and provides mobile and web payment systems for e-commerce companies. After being founded in 2007 by Bryan Johnson, Bill Ready took over as CEO and soon after, the startup acquired Venmo for $26.2 million.

In 2013, PayPal acquired Braintree for $800 million and the fintech then announced that they would expand to Australia, Europe and Canada. Later, the company expanded to Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.