Who are the owners of PayPal?

PayPal is owned by its shareholders. The largest shareholders are investment managers, including Vanguard Group, BlackRock, and State Street Corp.

Who owns PayPal and Venmo?

PayPal, including its subsidiary Venmo, is a public company owned by its shareholders.

What bank owns PayPal?

PayPal is a shareholder-owned business that partners with third-party banks for some services. Bank partners have included Synchrony (NYSE:SYF), Citi (NYSE:C), and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM).

What apps does PayPal own?

PayPal owns several applications. The namesake PayPal app facilitates digital payments between PayPal users. There's also PayPal Business, which incorporates features specifically for PayPal's business accountholders. Peer-to-peer payments app Venmo is also within the PayPal family. Other brands owned by PayPal include coupon-finding browser extension Honey, buy now, pay later platform Paidy, international payment service Xoom, and the contactless payments app Zettle.

Who Owns PayPal? | The Motley Fool

Who Owns PayPal?

By Catherine Brock – Updated Jan 9, 2026 at 12:09 PM EST

Key Points

PayPal, a public company, is owned by shareholders including institutions like Vanguard and BlackRock.
Investors can buy PayPal stock directly via NASDAQ or indirectly through funds like VOO or QQQ.
PayPal's board includes leaders from diverse sectors, enhancing its strategic governance.

PayPal Holdings (PYPL -1.41%) became a household name by creating an easy, reliable way to send money via the internet. Today, PayPal's business model 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 investors typically approach investing in PayPal stock.

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Fintech

Fintech, short for financial technology, are a variety of software platforms, apps, and hardware solutions that leverage tech to make financial processes easier, more efficient and more profitable.

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Who is the owner of PayPal?

PayPal is a public company owned by its shareholders, but its ownership history is more eventful than that simple answer suggests.

The company traces its roots to 1999, when Elon Musk founded the online payments startup X.com, while Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, and Max Levchin were building a similar service called Confinity. The two companies later merged, with Musk exiting before the end of 2000. Confinity was renamed PayPal and went public on the Nasdaq in February 2002, with shares jumping 50% on the first day of trading.

PayPal didn’t stay public for long. Just months after its IPO, eBay (EBAY +2.55%) acquired the company for $1.5 billion and took it private, relying heavily on PayPal to power its checkout experience. Over time, PayPal expanded beyond eBay, added services like Venmo, and ultimately spun off as an independent public company again in 2015.

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Who owns PayPal: FAQ

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About the Author

Catherine grew up in Southern California wearing a lot of black and trying to perfect the art of sarcasm. Prior to joining The Fool as a contract writer, Catherine was climbing the corporate ladder in marketing roles and dabbling in too many side hustles. When she's not writing, she can be found riding a horse in the country or shopping online for clothes.

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@catherinejbrock

Catherine Brock has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Airbnb, HP, International Business Machines, Intuit, PayPal, and eBay. The Motley Fool recommends BlackRock and CVS Health and recommends the following options: long January 2027 $42.50 calls on PayPal and short March 2026 $65 calls on PayPal. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Alex Chriss is PayPal's president and CEO. He came to PayPal from Intuit (INTU +3.93%), where he most recently held the title of executive vice president and general manager of the company's small business and self-employed group. Chriss also serves as a director for the home remodeling website Houzz.

Jonathan Christodoro has a lengthy career in investment banking, which includes working as a managing director for Carl Icahn's investment house. Christodoro has been on PayPal's board since 2015. He is currently a partner at Patriot Global Management.

John J. Donahoe has been chairman of PayPal's board since 2015. Donahoe is also president, CEO, and director at Nike.

David W. Dorman is former chairman and CEO of AT&T (T -2.52%) predecessor SBC Communications. Dorman is also non-executive board chair of CVS (CVS -1.30%) and a founding partner of private investment firm Centerview Capital Technology Fund. He has been on PayPal's board since 2015.

Belinda Johnson joined PayPal as a director in 2017. She formerly held leadership positions at Airbnb (ABNB -0.60%), including chief operating officer. She also served as a senior vice president and deputy general counsel for Yahoo!

Enrique Lores is president, CEO, and director for technology company HP (HPQ +0.19%). He has been with HP for three decades. In 2015, he led the division of the former Hewlett-Packard Company into two entities: HP, Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company.

Gail J. McGovern has been president and CEO of the American Red Cross since 2008. She has served on PayPal's board since 2015. She currently chairs the corporate governance and nominating committee.

Deborah M. Messemer served as major market managing partner for professional services firm KPMG from 2008 to 2018. She joined PayPal's board in 2018 and serves as a member of the audit, risk, and compliance committee.

David M. Moffett was CEO of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., or Freddie Mac, between 2008 and 2009. He was also chief financial officer of Star Banc, overseeing the acquisitions of Firstar Corp. and U.S. Bancorp. Moffett has been a director for PayPal since 2015.

Ann M. Sarnoff is chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios & Networks Group. She has also served as president of BBC Worldwide Americas and chief operating officer of BBC Worldwide North America. She has been on PayPal's board since 2017.

Frank D. Yeary is a manager at private investment firm Darwin Capital Advisors. He has also held senior leadership roles at Camberview Partners and Citigroup Investment Banking. Yeary has been a director for PayPal since 2015.

Who are the largest shareholders?

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires public company insiders and beneficial owners to disclose their share positions. Insiders are usually company executives who are privy to corporate details before they become public knowledge. Beneficial owners hold more than 5% of a class of stock.

According to SEC filings, the largest insiders and beneficial owners of PayPal include the following.

Pierre M. Omidyar is the founder of eBay. In 2018, he reported owning 58 million shares of PayPal. Based on PayPal's current outstanding share count, that amounted to a 5.2% ownership stake in early 2024. At a stock price of roughly $62, Omidyar's position was worth about $3.6 billion. Omidyar is no longer actively involved in eBay or PayPal.

Daniel H. Schulman was CEO of PayPal from 2015 until he retired at the end of 2023. As of his last filing in December 2023, Schulman owned 597,883 PayPal shares. His position amounted to a 0.05% ownership stake, worth about $37 million.

Aaron Karczmer is executive vice president and chief enterprise services officer for PayPal. As of March 2024, Karczmer owned 142,442 PayPal shares worth almost $9 million.

John Joseph Donahoe is CEO of Nike (NYSE:NIKE) and is the chairman of PayPal's board of directors. Donahoe owned 83,553 PayPal shares as of January 2024, valued at about $5 million.

David Wyatt Dorman, also a PayPal director, owned 66,405 shares as of January 2024. Dorman's PayPal position has added roughly $4 million to his net worth.

The largest institutional investors in PayPal are as follows.

Vanguard Group owns about 8% of PayPal. The mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) powerhouse has 90 million shares worth $5.6 billion in total.

BlackRock (BLK -2.06%), one of the world's largest asset managers, has 72.5 million shares of PayPal, or 6.5% of the company. The shares' cumulative value of $4.5 billion is a tiny sliver of BlackRock's $10 trillion of assets under management.

State Street Corp. (STT -0.59%), another fund manager, owns 4% of PayPal, with 45.3 million shares. The position is worth about $2.8 billion.

Comprehensive Financial Management, a California-based financial advisory firm, holds 28.6 million PayPal shares. That is a 2.5% ownership position, worth about $1.8 billion.

Geode Capital Management is an asset manager and Fidelity spinoff. Geode owns 21.2 million PayPal shares. The position is worth $1.3 billion and amounts to a 1.9% ownership stake.

Who Owns PayPal?

Key Points

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