PayPal bought Braintree to accelerate mobile payments, especially checkout built directly into smartphone apps. eBay announced the deal on September 26, 2013, for approximately $800 million in cash, and completed it on December 19, 2013. Braintree joined eBay’s PayPal business as a separate service, with Bill Ready remaining its chief executive and reporting to PayPal President David Marcus.
Why did PayPal buy Braintree?
PayPal wanted stronger access to the fast-growing class of businesses whose customers bought through mobile applications rather than a traditional desktop website. Braintree already focused on giving developers tools to embed payments in apps, making it a strategic extension of PayPal’s online checkout business.
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eBay’s 2013 filing said the acquisition was intended to accelerate PayPal’s mobile-payments growth. PayPal later described the transaction as a way to strengthen mobile payments and reach retailers whose services were delivered primarily through mobile apps.
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The combination also brought Braintree’s consumer product, Venmo, into PayPal. Venmo remained a separate app rather than being folded into the PayPal app.
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What Braintree brought to PayPal
- Mobile-first checkout: tools for businesses building payment flows inside iOS, Android and other mobile experiences.
- Developer-oriented integration: APIs and software designed for startups and online services to control the checkout experience.
- Established mobile merchants: Braintree’s announcement named Airbnb, OpenTable, TaskRabbit and Uber among the companies it powered.
- Consumer wallet growth: Venmo added a rapidly growing peer-to-peer payments brand while continuing as its own app.
How much did PayPal pay for Braintree?
The public figures differ because they come from different stages and presentations of the transaction:
| Figure | Where it appeared | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| Approximately $800 million in cash | eBay’s September 26, 2013 acquisition announcement | The announced total consideration presented when the deal was unveiled. |
| Approximately $713 million, primarily cash | eBay’s 2013 financial filing | The accounting consideration reported after the transaction, using the filing’s measurement and presentation. |
These numbers should not be treated as two separate payments. The $800 million figure was the announcement-stage description, while approximately $713 million was the later accounting figure disclosed in eBay’s filing.
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When did the Braintree acquisition close?
The transaction closed on December 19, 2013. eBay said Braintree would continue as a separate PayPal service after closing. Bill Ready continued to lead the business, preserving its operating identity while giving it access to PayPal’s wider payments platform and markets.
What was Braintree’s scale in 2013?
The acquisition announcement supplied several snapshots of Braintree’s position at the time. They are historical company descriptions and projections, not current operating metrics.
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| Measure | 2013 description |
|---|---|
| Expected payment volume | Approximately $12 billion for 2013, according to the announcement’s projection. |
| Mobile share of projected volume | About one-third was expected to come from mobile payments. |
| Geographic reach | Merchants in more than 40 countries. |
| Currency support | More than 130 currencies. |
| Single-click consumers | More than 40 million consumers covered by Braintree’s single-click purchasing capability. |
Those figures explain why PayPal viewed Braintree as more than a small developer tool: it already had international reach, recognizable mobile-first customers and a sizable payments platform.
How did the deal fit PayPal’s commerce strategy?
PayPal’s longer-term description placed Braintree inside the PayPal Commerce Platform. The objective was a fuller stack in which businesses could add both online and in-app shopping without building every payment component themselves.
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For developers
Braintree offered a way to embed checkout rather than redirecting a customer to a separate wallet page. That approach mattered for app-based businesses where an extra handoff could add friction, interrupt a user journey or make a service feel less native.
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For PayPal
The acquisition expanded PayPal’s reach beyond its familiar wallet button and into the infrastructure behind mobile commerce. It also gave PayPal a stronger relationship with developers and startup companies building new app-based services.
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For consumers
Customers could encounter faster, more integrated purchasing experiences inside apps. Venmo added a separate consumer network and app, while Braintree handled merchant payment infrastructure.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What happened after the acquisition?
In a September 2016 retrospective, PayPal reported that payment transactions on the Braintree platform had grown by more than 25 times between the second quarter of 2013 and the second quarter of 2016. That comparison documents substantial growth after the acquisition, although it does not provide a current transaction count or prove that the acquisition alone caused all of the increase.
What the acquisition did—and did not—mean
- It was an eBay acquisition of Braintree for its PayPal business: eBay announced and completed the transaction; Braintree did not become an independent PayPal purchase by a separate corporate buyer.
- Braintree did not disappear at closing: it continued as a separate PayPal service, with its own leadership and developer-facing identity.
- Venmo was included but remained separate: the consumer app was part of the acquisition while retaining its separate app experience.
- The headline price needs context: approximately $800 million was the announcement figure, while the later filing reported approximately $713 million of accounting consideration.
- The 2013 market figures are historical: projected volume, country count, currency count and consumer coverage describe the position presented at announcement, not guaranteed present-day capabilities.
How to evaluate PayPal and Braintree against alternatives
For a practical platform comparison, assess the capabilities that motivated the acquisition rather than looking only at brand recognition:
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- Mobile and in-app checkout: can the provider keep payment inside the app and support the required user experience?
- Developer integration: are the APIs, SDKs and documentation suited to the team’s stack and compliance model?
- Payment methods: does the platform support the cards, wallets and local methods your customers expect?
- Geography and currencies: are the countries and settlement currencies available for the business’s expansion plans?
- Merchant scale: can the service handle the company’s transaction volume, risk controls and operational needs?
- Wallet relationship: are consumer products integrated into the merchant platform, or do they remain separate experiences?
Bottom line on the 2013 deal
PayPal acquired Braintree because Braintree put mobile-native payments, developer relationships and app-based merchants at the center of its business. The deal gave PayPal a route into in-app commerce while preserving Braintree as a separate service and keeping Venmo as a separate consumer app. Its strategic value was mobile distribution and developer reach—not simply adding another conventional online checkout brand.
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