PayPal Will Buy Hyperwallet In $400 Million Deal

“The market has been committed to pay for consumers and buyers to create a seamless experience, and now pay environment is becoming more and more complicated,” Hyperwallet executives Simon Banks (Simon Banks) to the media said last year.

For years, it was unclear how much Hyperwallet had raised, but the Wall Street journal noted that Primus Capital, a private equity firm, was a major shareholder.

Crunchbase also has an investment from financial services firm Raymond James.

Hyperwallet was originally founded by MIT engineer Lisa Shields in Vancouver. Last year she founded the second company called FI.SPAN, an API management platform designed to allow banks to rapidly deploy new business banking products. Compared with many founders, Shields seems to keep a low profile. In 2015, when she won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, she said: “I feel privileged and humble, let alone surprise me.” (Hyperwallet has been led by CEO Brent Warrington since 2015.) Served as CEO of a company called SecureNet Payment Systems, which was later acquired.

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with a powerhouse like PayPal,” said Brent Warrington, CEO, Hyperwallet. “Combining Hyperwallet’s advanced payout capabilities with PayPal’s scale will bring increased value to both Hyperwallet’s and PayPal’s customers. This is an outstanding opportunity to supercharge Hyperwallet’s growth and further our mission to pay the planet.”

As for why PayPal acquired the company, it stated that it will strengthen its ability to provide payment solutions to global e-commerce platforms and markets, and pointed out that its market sales accounted for 50% or more of global online retail sales last year. HyperWallet provides a platform for e-commerce companies to easily pay to independent sellers or suppliers. PayPal will introduce these capabilities into its own payment platform and provide these capabilities in 200 markets around the world that HyperWallet already provides services.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018. The completion of this transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

Once the deal closes, PayPal and Braintree merchants will have access to localized, multi-currency payment capabilities in more than 200 markets.

“eCommerce platforms and marketplaces are leveling the retail playing field by connecting buyers who have specific needs with groups of sellers that can meet them,” said Bill Ready, chief operating officer at PayPal. “Merchants and service providers who use these platforms want quick, efficient, flexible and secure access to their earnings, whenever and wherever they need them. 

The acquisition is a small step for PayPal. The announcement comes a month after PayPal paid $2.2 billion for Swedish company iZettle, which provides mobile readers and other payment tools.

The acquisition of iZettle was PayPal’s largest transaction in its history. In 2015, PayPal bought Xoom, a money-transfer start-up, for $890 million. In 2013, when PayPal was part of eBay, it bought Braintree and its Venmo mobile payment service for $800 million.

IZettle operates in 12 markets, including several countries in northern Europe and Latin America. In these areas, PayPal’s offline business is not strong. IZettle also has a big presence in Britain. Given that Square is becoming a significant rival to PayPal in the UK, iZettle will help PayPal compete.