Three years after PayPal acquired Braintree for $800 million, the mobile payments company is proving why it ranks among the most significant tech acquisitions in recent years.
Braintree announced Tuesday that since it was bought by PayPal in 2013, transaction volume on its platform has grown 25x, nearly tripling every year since it was acquired. Transaction volume measures the total number of payments completed through the Braintree platform. Braintree didn't give the amount of money that has been processed, but last year the company said it surpassed $50 billion in payment volume.
The huge growth is the result of a few factors. Mobile payments have skyrocketed, and Braintree has powered the payment processing technology for a range of popular apps like Uber, Airbnb, StubHub and Fan Duel. Braintree owns Venmo, the fast-growing money transfer app loved by millennials, and recently launched a feature that lets users pay merchants using their Venmo accounts. And Braintree is working with companies like Pinterest, where it has launched buyable pins, and it's helping Facebook Messenger users hail and pay for an Uber or Lyft through in-message purchases.
Braintree and PayPal also bought Chicago mobile payment startup Modest, founded by former Obama for America CTO Harper Reed, which has helped the company launch PayPal Commerce, a contextual commerce infrastructure that allows merchants to more easily sell their goods through buy buttons on email, social media, blogs and elsewhere online.
"From our early days, we’ve had a vision for what commerce could be and continue to take every step necessary to bring this vision to life," Braintree CTO Juan Benitez said in a statement. "Innovation in e-commerce and mobile commerce happens when merchants and consumers are given unique new ways to connect. PayPal’s vast global network combined with Braintree’s platform allows us to deliver experiences that only we can offer together."
Based in Chicago, Braintree has over 500 employees in seven offices across the world.
Image via Braintree
