PayPal announced Thursday that it has agreed to acquire iZettle, a small business commerce platform providing its services in Europe and Latin America, for $2.2 billion. The acquisition of iZettle significantly expands PayPal’s in-store presence, strengthening PayPal’s platform against competitors such as Stripe and Square.
Upon closing, PayPal gains in-store capabilities in 11 markets, including Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden. PayPal also gains near-term in-store expansion opportunities into other existing PayPal markets, and acceleration of omnichannel commerce solutions in Australia, U.K. and U.S.
“Combining our assets and expertise with a global industry leader like PayPal allows us to deliver even more value to small businesses to help them succeed in a world of giants,” said iZettle CEO Jacob de Geer. “The combination of iZettle and PayPal will provide tremendous benefits to our merchants who will have access to an even wider range of tools to help them get paid, sell smarter and grow.”
According to iZettle, it expects to generate gross revenues of approximately $165 million USD in 2018, with approximately $6 billion USD of total payment volume (TPV) expected to be processed on its platform. The company said it has grown its revenues at a CAGR of approximately 60% from 2015 to 2017, and expects to reach EBITDA profitability by 2020 on a standalone basis.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018.
