Who Invented Venmo
Venmo was co-founded by Iqram Magdon-Ismail and Andrew Kortina in 2009 while they were students at the University of Pennsylvania Forbes. The app launched publicly in 2012 as a mobile payment platform focused on splitting bills and sharing payments between friends.
In 2012, Braintree, a payments company, acquired Venmo for around $26.2 million. PayPal later acquired Braintree in 2013 for approximately $800 million, bringing Venmo under the PayPal umbrella SEC filing. Today, Venmo operates as a brand within PayPal, which is one of the largest online payment companies in the world.
How Venmo Works
Venmo lets users send and receive money using a mobile app linked to a bank account, debit card, or credit card. Transactions are processed through the Venmo network, and users can add notes, emojis, and privacy settings to each payment.
In 2024 and 2025, Venmo expanded features such as direct deposit, debit card issuance, and merchant payments. The app is widely used for peer-to-peer transfers, small business payments, and social sharing of transactions, with millions of active users in the United States.
Venmo Ownership and Market Position
Venmo is a wholly owned subsidiary of PayPal Holdings, Inc., which is publicly traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker PYPL PayPal Investor Relations. PayPal continues to integrate Venmo into its broader ecosystem of digital payment products.
Venmo is one of the leading peer-to-peer payment apps in the United States, competing with Zelle, Cash App, Apple Cash, and Google Pay. As of 2025, Venmo remains a major player in mobile payments, with strong growth in merchant acceptance and in-app commerce features Forbes Advisor.