PayPal brings many brands under a single umbrella, Venmo remains standalone

For Frank Keller, it’s a crucial moment PayPal. Two years later, after an endless brand strategy meeting with two CEOs, the company is ready to redefine the business world, in his view.

With the launch of PayPal Open this week, Keller, executive vice president of Enterprise Merchant Group, and his team are consolidating many of the offerings of Braintree, Zettle, HyperWallet and Chargehound into a single brand.

Speaking from Germany, Keller told CNBC that the strategy began to move after a customer said, “You have all this amazing thing, but we don’t know about it.”

“In fact, I have actually worked for two years in terms of how to establish PayPal as a B2B business at this launch,” says Keller.

Founded in 1998, PayPal was synonymous with the consumer checkout button, but business-to-business solutions belong to companies that acquired with little inclusive technology and little cohesion. . Once PayPal opens, those names disappear into the background, allowing PayPal to focus its centralized efforts to become more important to the company.

Keller compares his efforts to other consumer brands that have expanded to B2B. Amazon Web services as a major example. Meanwhile, much of CEO Alex Chriss’ early successes have been attributed to increased transaction margins and better monetization of major acquisitions like Braintree, handling credit card processing. Meta Last year, it processed about $600 billion in total payments.

Opening the name took months to market research, internal deliberations and some last-minute strategic pivots. There was even debate about whether to focus more on Braintree.

“PayPal is one of the most trusted brands in the world,” Keller said, explaining the logic behind this decision.

Pressure comes on Chriss, who took over as CEO in September 2023 after a cruel few years of Paypal.

The company’s branded checkout business – the most profitable segment in history – faces competition. apple pay, Google Payment and Shopify’s ShopPay has all been dominated by PayPal, especially among younger consumers who prefer mobile-first payment solutions. Branded checkout accounts for 30% of PayPal’s total payment volume.

PayPal Open is designed to do more than process B2B payments. Companies, developers and partners can also integrate financial services and AI-powered business insights through a single connection. For merchants, it means easy access to fraud protection, buy now, pay later options, global transactions in 140 currencies, and lending solutions.

There is one notable brand that has not been involved in the integration: Venmo.

The popular peer-to-peer payment apps all have over 90 million active users in the US, making them virtually ubiquitous among younger audiences.

“People say ‘Benmo Me’,” Keller said. “It’s a very clear consumer brand.”

PayPal Open will begin this week with a gradual transition for brands beginning in April.

Keller said the company is “no need to rip and replace Braintree” and other integrations, but it has gained seamless access to all PayPal offerings. Keller says it’s all about showing that PayPal could become a true enterprise powerhouse.

“We want to be an open platform where businesses, developers and partners can build on our solutions,” Keller said.