Venmo started out in 2009 as a way for founders Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail to pay each other without having to exchange cash or write a cheque. The first prototype worked over SMS, Andrew and Iqram would send notes alongside the cash to keep track of payments.
While SMS functionality died with the app launch in late 2010, the social element of Venmo remains one of the app’s core features. In early demos, Venmo founders proposed it as a way for musicians to sell songs and merchandise at live gigs, and as a way for students to pay their favourite food trucks.
Venmo uses peer-to-peer technology to send money online, and has recently started allowing users to hold money in the account. Users connect a debit or credit card to the app, which it can use to send and withdraw money from Venmo.
It took almost three years for Venmo to launch publicly, although iPhone and Android users could join through the app by September 2011. A few months after it officially launched, online payments provider Braintree acquired it for $26.2 million.
A year later, PayPal agreed to an $800 million purchase of Braintree, which included Venmo. This was back when PayPal was a growing subsidiary in the eBay behemoth, which it split from in 2015. In the split, PayPal took Venmo with it.
PayPal revolutionized the way people pay businesses online, but it never developed a system for paying friends easily. Venmo removed all transaction costs, allowing friends to send money online for free. This made it a major hit for people that don’t carry cash, like students and teens, which led to it entering the lexicon of technology brands that are also verbs.
Venmo generates revenue through a 2.9 percent transaction fee for businesses. Venmo also charges a one percent fee for users who want to withdraw money instantly to their linked card, usual withdrawals take one to two days.
PayPal sees Venmo’s social network as the potential revenue generator for the next decade. Users are able to spy on their friends, to see who they’re sending money to or what they’re spending it on. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman described this as the “secret sauce” in a 2015 interview.
It’s not clear how PayPal plans to turn this social spying into income. It has been suggested some type of advertising platform, targeting users based on purchases or friend activity. Venmo could also use data shared to build an analytics platform for merchants.
Venmo has been the subject of several cyberattacks, as hackers use the social platform to scrape data on millions of transactions. The app has made changes to its API in the past year, alongside informative articles on how to keep payments private, but for many the allure of Venmo is the social network.
The seven largest banks in America launched a competitor to Venmo in 2017, called Zelle, which shares some of the similarities without the social platform. Zelle has gained a strong foothold in the US, but Venmo still holds a commanding lead in the under 35 age bracket. Square’s Cash App is also competing for those customers and has seen a lot of success in 2020, by adding Bitcoin and investing services.
We have collected key data and statistics on Venmo. Read on below to find out more. Want to learn more about the mobile banking market? Check out our finance app report.
Venmo Key Statistics
- Venmo processed $276 billion in total payment volume in 2023, a 13.1% increase year-on-year
- Venmo made an estimated $1.1 billion in 2023, an 18.2% increase on 2023 figures
- 83 million people used Venmo in 2023, most users are based in the United States
- PayPal acquired Venmo in 2013 for $800 million, as part of its acquisition of Braintree
Want to learn more about the finance app industry? In our Finance App report, we cover financials, forecasts, usage, downloads, demographics and benchmarking data.
Finance App Report 2024
Venmo Overview
| Title 1 | Title 2 |
|---|---|
| Launch date | August 2009 (March 2012 public launch) |
| HQ | New York City, US |
| People | Alex Chriss (President, CEO), John Kim (CPO) |
| Business type | Subsidiary |
| Parent company | PayPal |
| Industry | Finance |
Venmo Revenue
Venmo annual revenue growth improved in 2023, cracking the $1 billion milestone.
Venmo revenue 2017 to 2023 ($mm)
| Year | Revenue ($mm) |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 160 |
| 2018 | 200 |
| 2019 | 300 |
| 2020 | 450 |
| 2021 | 850 |
| 2022 | 930 |
| 2023 | 1100 |
Note: 2022-2023 values estimated. Sources: Company data, The Street
Venmo Annual Payment Volume
Venmo transacted over $275 billion in payment volume in 2023, about 18% of PayPal’s total.
Venmo payment volume 2014 to 2023 ($bn)
| Year | Total payment volume ($bn) |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 2.3 |
| 2015 | 7.5 |
| 2016 | 20 |
| 2017 | 34 |
| 2018 | 62 |
| 2019 | 101 |
| 2020 | 159 |
| 2021 | 230 |
| 2022 | 244 |
| 2023 | 276 |
Note: 2022-2023 values estimated. Sources: Fortune, Statista
Venmo Users
83 million people used Venmo in 2023. PayPal refers to users as those that access Venmo once a year.
Venmo annual users 2015 to 2023 (mm)
| Year | Users (mm) |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 3 |
| 2016 | 5 |
| 2017 | 10 |
| 2018 | 23 |
| 2019 | 40 |
| 2020 | 52 |
| 2021 | 70 |
| 2022 | 78 |
| 2023 | 83 |
Note: 2022-2023 values estimated. Sources: Company data, Fast Company, The Street
Venmo Valuation
Venmo was independently valued at $38 billion in 2020.
Venmo valuation 2015 to 2020 ($mm)
| Year | Valuation ($bn) |
|---|---|
| 2013 | 0.1 |
| 2018 | 15 |
| 2020 | 38 |
Note: Estimate based on percentage of revenue and user growth vs PayPal user growth. Source: Ark-Invest
Venmo vs Competitors: TPV
Zelle, the mobile payments service backed by most of the major American banks, is far ahead of Venmo and Cash App in TPV.
Payments apps total payment volume 2016 to 2023 ($bn)
Venmo FAQ
How many US merchants accept Venmo?
Over two million merchants accept Venmo in the US
How much revenue does Venmo contribute to PayPal’s overall?
Venmo contributes approximately 16 percent of PayPal’s total
How many transactions does the average Venmo user do per month?
Users average five transaction per month
What is the average transaction amount on Venmo?
The average transaction amount is between $65-75 in the US (Ark-Invest)
What is the age demographics on Venmo?
50 percent of users are between the ages 25 to 34, 33 percent are between the ages 18 to 24
What are the gender demographics on Venmo?
61 percent of users are male, 39 percent are female (Mediapost)
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