This story was originally published on Payments Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Payments Dive newsletter.
PayPal Holdings has enabled its peer-to-peer money transfer app Venmo to expand its services outside the U.S. for the first time, to 90 international markets, the company said Monday.
The expansion was enabled “through new connectivity with PayPal,” the parent company said in a press release. The expansion will allow Venmo users to send money abroad and domestically with a phone number, and Venmo will waive international fees through Aug. 24, according to the release.
Connecting Venmo with PayPal is “a natural next step in expanding Venmo’s reach and utility to unlock more value for customers,” a Venmo spokesperson said Monday in an email.
Ever since it acquired the Venmo assets in 2013, PayPal has struggled with how to better integrate them into its broader digital payments network. Former PayPal CEO Alex Chriss tackled the Venmo challenge, but he exited last month without a major announcement on that front.
Now, the company has taken this noteworthy Venmo step under the leadership of its new CEO, Enrique Lores, who entered the job on March 1. PayPal operates in about 200 countries and 25 currencies.
Taking Venmo global “directly addresses a common frustration with peer-to-peer payments: app fragmentation has made sending money between friends and family more complicated than it needs to be,” according to the press release.
The tighter integration of PayPal and Venmo outside the U.S. will allow “Venmo and PayPal users to pay one another without friction or borders,” Diego Scotti, a PayPal general manager, said in the release.
The rise of digital payments has increased expectations across the fintech industry that cross-border payments, sometimes referred to as remittances, can become simpler, faster and cheaper. A host of digital payments providers, including Remitly and Wise, are taking on traditional international money transmitters, like Western Union and MoneyGram, in an increasingly competitive arena.
Venmo’s transfers will show a sender “transparency” on currency conversion costs and applicable fees before a transaction is completed, the release said.
PayPal, based in San Jose, California, acquired Venmo with its 2013 purchase of Braintree Payments Solutions for $800 million cash. Chicago-based Braintree had bought Venmo the prior year for $26.2 million.
Recommended Reading