PayPal Holdings (PYPL -2.82%) became a household name by creating an easy, reliable way to send money via the internet. Today, the company has grown beyond payments to offer a suite of financial services for individuals and businesses.
Below, you'll learn who started PayPal, who owns the company today, and how you can invest in this fintech stock.
Fintech
Who is the owner of PayPal?
PayPal is a public company owned by its shareholders. That fact isn't nearly as interesting as the ownership history of PayPal -- a history that includes cameos by Elon Musk and Max Levchin, who's now the CEO of a different fintech stock, Affirm (AFRM -3.44%).
NASDAQ: PYPL
Key Data Points
First, let's provide the context. What is fintech? Fintech, short for financial technology, describes software, hardware, and related technologies that streamline or digitize financial services. This includes applications for digital payments, cryptocurrencies, mobile banking, and investing. Robo-advising algorithms and buy now, pay later offerings are also under the umbrella of fintech.
PayPal, Coinbase (COIN -5.40%), Block (NYSE:SQ), Visa (V -0.53%), and Robinhood (HOOD -3.69%) are all popular fintech stocks.
Long before Tesla (TSLA -0.84%) and Twitter, Musk founded a financial services website called X.com. It was 1999, and Musk's vision involved easy digital payments for internet transactions. At the same time, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, and Levchin were working to a similar end in their startup, Confinity.
X.com and Confinity would join forces to build a larger, stronger entity. Musk remained involved briefly but was ousted before the end of 2000. In 2021, Confinity changed its name to PayPal. It went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange in February 2002, rising 50% on its first trading day.
PayPal did not remain public for long. A few months after its initial public offering (IPO), eBay (EBAY +0.47%) bought the company outright for $1.5 billion and delisted it from the Nasdaq. At the time, some 60% of PayPal's revenue came from eBay transactions. The partnership allowed the two teams to work more closely to streamline the online checkout experience.
In the years that followed, PayPal expanded its service set, acquired Venmo, and ultimately outgrew eBay. PayPal split away from the online retailer and became a public entity for the second time in 2015.
How to invest in PayPal
Investing in PayPal is straightforward. The company trades on the Nasdaq exchange, so you can buy the stock from within your brokerage account or IRA. Once you've confirmed PayPal suits your strategy for investing, simply place a buy order for the number of shares you'd like to purchase. If your broker supports fractional or dollar-cost averaging, you can place an order using the dollar amount you want to invest.
If you're new to investing in stocks, you might consider buying PayPal indirectly through a mutual fund or ETF. A fund provides instant diversification, which is a good way to manage your risk.////
Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF)
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