Last Updated on August 9, 2024
You have probably used this payment method a gazillion times if you’re an independent adult. This American multinational financial technology company catered a revenue of 25.37 billion US dollars in 2021 alone.
Yes, we’re talking about your favorite digital wallet, PayPal!
One would easily be intrigued to find out the cause and story behind PayPal. It’s a marvel how this company became so huge and influential within a short time span. So we’ll tell you all about it!
In this article, we will explore all the companies owned by PayPal. Some of these companies have excellent reputations and are excessively used in the finance sector. Let’s explore all of them below.
The History of PayPal
PayPal Holdings Inc. was birthed by Max Levchin and Peter Theil in 1998; it emerged as a hybrid baby of two parent companies named ‘X.com’ and ‘Confinity’’. It went live in 2002 and was excessively used by a widely renowned global auction company, eBay.
eBay purchased PayPal in 2002 for 1.5 billion US dollars. PayPal remained under the ownership of eBay for the time between 2002 and 2015.
Current SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter owner Elon Musk also had a role in bringing PayPal to life. He was the co-founder of X.com.
The unparalleled anti-phishing and anti-hacking measures made PayPal a safe and secure online transaction medium. It also boasted a portable key mechanism so the account could not go active until the true bearer filed a manual activation process.
Here’s an informational video explaining how PayPal became the industry-leading giant it is today.
12 Companies Owned by PayPal
Xoom
- Nature of Company: FacilitatesPayment transactions
- Year of Acquisition: 2015
- Price of Acquisition: 1.09 billion USD
Xoom ensures rapid and secure international transactions to over 131 countries. Payees can send money via online transfers or even have the cash delivered to the recipient’s address. The recipient can also collect the cash from Xoom’s extensive agent network.
The agent network system caters to the efficient delivery of remittances.
It is a similar transaction modality to PayPal. However, PayPal mostly focuses on business and corporate transactions, whereas Xoom is more inclined towards personal fund transfers.
Venmo
- Nature of Company: Social and Merchant Billings
- Year of Acquisition: 2013
- Price of Acquisition: 800 million USD (purchased alongside Braintree)
Venmo is a mobile payment service native to America that PayPal acquired in 2013. It offers swift and easy payments from phones and allows users to split bills and pay friends. The payments are made fun and interactive by allowing users to add comments and emojis with each payment.
Recently Venmo has introduced merchant payment options too that are only available in the US right now. Venmo is mainly oriented towards personal transactions and makes them hassle-free. It is one of the most convenient ways to pay friends and family across the country. This amazing tool allows you to split movie tickets, groceries, taxi rides, rent, meals, and much more!
Braintree
- Nature of Company: Payment Solutions
- Year of Acquisition: 2013
- Price of Acquisition: 800 million USD (purchased alongside Venmo)
Braintree was acquired by Paypal together with Venmo in 2013. The company provides simple payment methods to big e-commerce companies. It enables them to accept direct payment through PayPal, Venmo, digital wallets, and cards.
Today Braintree is offering payment solutions in over 45 countries worldwide.
PayPal Credit
- Nature of Company: Buy Now, Pay Later
- Year of Acquisition: 2008
- Price of Acquisition: 945 million USD
PayPal Credit was previously called Bill Me Later prior to its acquisition by PayPal in 2008. The company offers clients a buy now, pay later service through which consumers can shop, spend money and pay for it later through personalised instalment plans.
The PayPal Credit service is fully integrated with PayPal. Every time customers would like to pay through the PayPal credit service; they must log in to their PayPal account and complete the transaction. The service requires a minimum credit score of 650+ for eligibility.
Customers have a period of 6 months to pay bills over $99. In the event of non-payment within 6 months, the customer will be charged an interest rate of 19.99% from the original purchase date.
Swift Financial
- Nature of Company: Provides Business Loans
- Year of Acquisition: 2017
- Price of Acquisition: 180 million USD
Swift Financial offers business funding solutions for small businesses and startups. Through business loans of up to 500,000/- USD, Swift Financial is able to help companies to reach their true potential and grow exponentially.
With the help of the latest technology and a team of qualified business experts, Swift Financial is able to provide clients with personalised loans and fast funding to fit their business needs. With this amazing service’s help, customers can bypass the traditional cumbersome bank loans that are hard to acquire and unreliable.
Zettle
- Nature of Company: Payment Solutions
- Year of Acquisition: 2021
- Price of Acquisition: 2.2 billion USD
Formerly known as iZettle, Zettle by PayPal is a financial technology company offering incredible payment solutions.
Zettle is able to help small businesses in four major financial departments; payments, point of sale, small business loans, and partner applications. It offers small business card acceptance services, allowing them to accept credit and debit cards as a form of payment. Moreover, Zettle was the first company to accept contactless payments in the UK.
It allows businesses to track and analyze sales while relaying statistical information to business owners, including the highest-performing products and average payment volumes.
Based on the point-of-sale transaction data, Zettle offers a small business financing service. This service is currently exclusive to Europe.
Zettle also allows the integration of third-party apps and add payment options to Zettle’s mobile apps.
Chargehound
- Nature of Company: Dispute Automation
- Year of Acquisition: 2021
- Price of Acquisition: –
Chargehound offers Paypal users easy and convenient chargeback solutions that make disputes hassle-free. The system is fully automated; evidence is pulled from the secure payment processor, and the system automatically generates and submits responses on your behalf for seamless chargebacks.
Chargehound is natively integrated with Paypal, Braintree, Stripe, and Vantiv, making payments and chargebacks easier than ever.
Honey
- Nature of Company: Online coupons, discounts, and cashback
- Year of Acquisition: 2020
- Price of Acquisition: 4 billion USD
Honey was PayPal’s largest acquisition to date. It is an online discounting and coupons company that automatically applies coupons on e-commerce websites. PayPal Honey generates its revenue from commissions earned through transactions between partner retailers and users.
PayPal Honey has over 17 million users and has provided over 1 billion dollars in savings since its inception.
Happy Returns
- Nature of Company: Returns Services
- Year of Acquisition: 2021
- Price of Acquisition: –
Happy Returns is a logistics and e-commerce company that has recently been acquired by PayPal. The company works with online merchants to make product returns easier and more reliable.
Happy Returns allows customers to return packages without boxes and labels at third-party locations. These locations can be searched through the company’s website.
The returns are all collectively sent back to the merchants, thereby saving on packaging and shipment costs.
Paidy
- Nature of Company: Buy Now, Pay Later Service
- Year of Acquisition: 2021
- Price of Acquisition: 2.7 billion USD
Paidy is a Japanese deferred online payment service that is used for e-commerce.
This service can be used without a credit card, and all purchases can be combined to form a single invoice which can then be paid at the end of each month. Users can pay their bills via bank transfers or physically at their nearest convenience store.
PayPal acquired Paidy in 2021 to tap into the third-largest e-commerce market in the world: Japan.
Hyperwallet
- Nature of Company: Mass Payout Service
- Year of Acquisition: 2018
- Price of Acquisition: 400 million USD
Hyperwallet is a payout service that enables big and small businesses to swiftly, reliably, and easily pay all of their employees. Through Hyperwallet, organization and administration don’t have to be so cumbersome anymore since business owners can send out mass payments to their payees worldwide.
All of this is done securely without the risk of any breaches or fraud. Hyperwallet allows you to personalize the payout process according to your business needs.
Paydiant
- Nature of Company: Cloud-Based Payment Services
- Year of Acquisition: 2015
- Price of Acquisition: 280 million USD
Paydiant is a cloud-based payment services company that extends services to merchants, point of sale, banks, and ATM providers. The service allows consumers to use a mobile payment directly without involving any middlemen or intermediaries.
The FAQ Section: Ask Away
How Does PayPal Work?
PayPal is a payment service that works as an intermediary between customers and the bank. Users can link their bank accounts, credit cards and debit cards with their PayPal account in order to use it as a means of payment.
It allows you to choose from which account you’d like to pay.
Similarly, when receiving payments, the money sits in your PayPal account, and you can choose when to deposit it into your linked bank account.
Can PayPal be used internationally?
You can use PayPal for international transactions in over 200 countries worldwide. This enables companies and individuals to make swift international payments through the PayPal app free of hassle.
What are the requirements for using PayPal?
There are no special requirements for using PayPal. All you need is a valid email, bank account, and a credit card or debit card.
