Long known for helping friends split dinner bills and birthday presents, Benmo has jumped into the heart of consumer commerce.
PayPal– Wednesday’s owned platform rolled out several updates designed to move beyond peer-to-peer transfers, turning Venmo into a more robust fintech tool for everyday spending.
Changes include upgraded rewards for Venmo Debit Mastercard Users is a new brand campaign aimed at expanding checkout options at major retailers and deploying Venmo, which has over 64 million active users per month, as a full-service commerce platform.
“We’re committed to providing a range of services to our customers,” said Diego Scotti, EVP and General Manager, Consumer Group, PayPal.
This is a shift as Benmo catches up to his rivals in key fintech growth areas and seeks to acquire more daily consumer wallets.
According to Bernstein, Venmo’s debit card penetration rate is still in single digits of distance compared to 44% of cash app users. Additionally, the transaction volume for Venmo debit cards totaled $13 billion, while Cash App reached $152 billion in 2024.
PayPal doubled in competition with platforms such as the Cash app. In a recent revenue call, PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said that over 45% of US brand checkouts are running through the company’s upgraded experience.
He also pointed out strong debit card momentum, with nearly 2 million people using PayPal or Venmo debit cards in the last quarter, up 90% from the previous year.
Venmo is accelerating in multiple ways, but there are still areas to improve.
PayPal did not break the $1 figure, but revenues rose 20% year-on-year. Venmo’s total payments increased by 10% to $75.9 billion. Wage trading volume with Venmo was 50%, with monthly active users of Venmo debit cards increasing by around 40%.
Chriss has made it a priority to monetize acquisitions such as Braintree and Venmo. Major brands like Doordash, Starbucks and Ticketmaster accept Venmo upon check-out. This is a move to further integrate apps into daily consumer spending.
The Venmo and Cash apps have lost their US peer-to-peer payment distribution over the past year as Zelle surged from 55% in 2019 to 66% of the market volume. Currently, Venmo is down 19% from 21% last year, showing pressure expanding beyond basic transfers.
Venmo maintains the bank on brand awareness, social roots and user loyalty to drive adoption among young mobile-first consumers.
The updated Venmo debit card offers 15% cashback at major retailers, including Sephora. Walmart, lyft, McDonald’sand Walgreenis activated directly in the app. Cardholders can also use mobile wallets to make payments in stores, purchase internationally without foreign transaction fees, and enable car reloads when balances go down.
In parallel, Venmo is expanding its presence at checkout.
The ability to pay with Venmo is currently live under brands like Tiktok Shop. Uber, Instacartand Domino. The company hopes that this growing merchant network will further entrench Venmo as a payment method, especially at a time when consumers are looking for both convenience and reward.
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