EBay just announced that they have agreed to buy Braintree, a full-stack payments platform that allows companies to accept payments in mobile apps and websites. PayPal, a subsidiary of eBay will integrate Braintree into its systems allowing for a broader reach in mobile payment processing.
John Donahue, president and CEO of eBay Inc. commented on the acquisition, “Braintree is a perfect fit with PayPal. Bill Ready and his team add complementary talent and technology that we believe will help accelerate PayPal’s global leadership in mobile payments. Together, we expect that PayPal and Braintree also will accelerate our leadership in supporting developers who are creating innovative solutions for next generation commerce startups.” This acquisition is aimed at making mobile payment more friendly and frictionless, eliminating the need for users to reenter their PayPal credentials for every transaction.
“We wanted to go startup fast,” John Lunn, global director of the PayPal Developer Network, told ReadWrite. “Braintree is going to be the platform for developers. We’re not going to change anything… we’re going to use this new Braintree platform as the new outward-facing platform for developers.” Braintree acquired Venmo, a much smaller New York-based payments startup, about a year ago. Venmo allowed users to enter a credit card into one app and then remember the number in other apps. Braintree then used the same system and widened its use to other apps and software as long as these third party software were built using Braintree on the back end.
The modernization of mobile payment systems seems to be going on very nicely and consumers worldwide will be pleased at this move by PayPal. With services such as contactless paying, PayPals new acquisition will increase user friendliness and improve the mobile payment experience.
