ETA Member PayPal Leads $50m Investment Round in Cross-Border Payments FinTech PPRO
ETA member PayPal led a $50 million investment round in PPRO, a UK-based cross-border e-payments firm, PPRO announced Monday in a press release. Citi Ventures and HPE Growth Capital, a return investor in the firm, were also participants in the fundraising round, which PPRO says will be used to accelerate the expansion of its payments platform and boost its international presence in the alternative payments acquiring business.
“PPRO is a pioneer in providing value-added acquiring services for alternative payment methods and we are one of the fastest growing fintech businesses in Europe,” said Simon Black, CEO, PPRO Group, in a statement. “Adding support from PayPal and Citi Ventures alongside our existing investors will make it possible to bring the benefits of alternative payment method acceptance to even more businesses around the world.”
PPRO offers solutions that are focused on enabling cross-border payments for merchants by offering seamless acceptance of payments across different payment platforms and types, which often vary from country to country.
“A merchant’s choice of payments partner is increasingly being driven by the ever-expanding range of locally relevant payment methods available,” said Arnold Goldberg, vice president of merchant product and technology, PayPal, in the release. “PayPal is pleased to support PPRO as the company continues to grow. We recently signed a commercial agreement with them to provide a wide range of payment options for our merchants, so consumers can shop seamlessly across borders through the new PayPal Checkout with Smart Payment Buttons, Braintree and all of our merchant products. This is yet another way we are positioning ourselves to be the one-stop solution for global digital commerce.”
The investment comes at a time of notable investment and acquisition activity for PayPal. In May, PayPal announced its $2.2 billion acquisition of iZettle, a European mobile point-of-sale manufacturer and payments tech company. In June, PayPal announced acquisitions of AI firm Simility for $120 million and payment facilitator Hyperwallet for $400 million.