PayPal is acquiring iZettle, in what will be the largest acquisition in PayPal’s history – they’re swallowing up a massive competitor that competes in Europe and Latin America.
PayPal already have a card reader, but where iZettle are strong is their in-store expertise, digital marketing strength and mobile point-of-sale technology. PayPal have seen some growth in this area but there is a lot of competition in the space with everyone from Square to Etsy offering solutions.
iZettle was founded in 2010 by Jacob de Geer and Magnus Nilsson with a mission to help small businesses and revolutionized mobile payments with the world’s first mini chip card reader and software for mobile devices. Today, the company’s commerce solutions empower nearly half a million merchants across 12 countries and two continents to get paid.
“The global scale and 19 million merchant relationships that PayPal has enables us to move faster and reach further than ever before. Combined with the iZettle brand, capabilities and talent this means we’re ready to level the playing field for small businesses all around the world.”
– Jacob de Geer, CEO & co-founder, iZettle
iZettle’s latest news prior to the acquisition announcement was the creation of an ecommerce platform – PayPal are getting more than just payments technology as iZettle have traditionally built tools to do business rather than simply tools to get paid.
“Jacob and his team bring best-in-class capabilities and talent that will expand our tremendous market opportunity. Upon closing, we will gain in-store capabilities in 11 markets, near-term in-store expansion opportunities into other existing PayPal markets, and the acceleration of omnichannel commerce solutions in Australia, U.K. and U.S.”
– Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal
It is expected that the deal will close in the third quarter of 2018 at which point integration between the two companies will begin.
