PayPal Ventures is no more.
Five sources said Luck that the corporate business arm, which was established in 2016, would spin off its operations. A company spokesperson confirmed the news to TechCrunch, albeit with a discreet statement.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to focus, we are exploring strategic options for our corporate business,” the spokesman said in an email.
PayPal Ventures has made more than 80 investments, including cryptocurrency trading platform Talos Global, fintech infrastructure firm Plaid, and crypto bank Anchorage Digital. It has raised $850 million from three funds.
The decision to close the venture fund follows the departure of PayPal CEO Alex Chriss, who was replaced by Enrique Lores in February. The board said Chriss had failed to keep up with changes in the industry and failed to live up to its expectations. Ironically, the end of PayPal Ventures could mean the company falls even further behind. The venture arm gave PayPal a front-row seat to emerging fintech innovation. Without it, the company risks losing visibility to startups shaping the future of financial services and falling behind competitors who hold strategic arms of ventures.
Lores took the helm with a mission to restructure things, and he has, with more cuts and layoffs expected to follow in the coming years, Fortune reported. The outlet also reported that PayPal is exploring secondary sales to offload some of its business holdings and has hired Jefferies to help with that project. Lores said in the company’s first-quarter earnings call last month that it needed to “re-commit to the fundamentals,” which included “becoming a technology company again.”
It’s clear the company wants to reposition itself in the ecosystem — particularly around artificial intelligence — which means this may not be the last chapter for corporate investment in PayPal.
The PayPal business news also comes after the company reached a $30 million settlement with the Justice Department over the creation of an investment program in 2020 that targeted black and minority-owned businesses. PayPal was also sued in January 2025 by an investor who claimed she was excluded from the investment program because she was Asian. This case appears to be headed for trial, according to court documents.
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