• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechVenmo

You Can Now Use PayPal’s Venmo To Pay Merchants

By
Leena Rao
Leena Rao
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Leena Rao
Leena Rao
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 27, 2016, 6:00 PM ET
Courtesy of Venmo

PayPal recently laid out its plans to start making money from one of its fastest growing digital payment apps, Venmo. Now, it’s making good on that promise.

PayPal (PYPL) on Wednesday said that Venmo would start a test in which merchants like food delivery service Munchery and event tickets seller Gametime would be able to accept payments from customers placing orders through iPhone apps. Those merchants will be charged a small fee for each transaction.

It’s a small step in turning Venmo, used mainly by people to settle up after a night out on the town with friends or when splitting the cost of a gift, into a business. The service lets people link their debit and credit card accounts online and digitally transfer money to anyone.

Here’s how the test works: People who have Venmo installed on their phone will see a Venmo button when they order from the Munchery and Gametime apps. After selecting the Venmo option, they will be able to automatically use any payment information stored in Venmo, explained Mike Vaughan, the general manager of Venmo.

Users won’t be charged any fees for using Venmo. Instead, Venmo will charge merchants a standard 2.9% of the transaction amount plus 30 cents per transaction.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter

One of the incentives for merchants to use Venmo is to tap into the app’s young, and growing base of users. In the fourth quarter, Venmo handled $2.5 billion in payment volume, up 174% from the same quarter in 2014. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman has said that the average Venmo user sends money through the app several times weekly.

Merchants are also interested in how Venmo encourages its users to socialize their payment history. Venmo users can use the app to let their friends see what they buy as sort of social advertising for merchants, Joanna Lambert, PayPal’s vice president of consumer product and engineering recently told Fortune in December. Users will be asked if they want to share their transactions after they complete an order in Munchery or Gametime.

Venmo isn’t the first peer to peer payments service to work with merchants. Square’s rival app, Square Cash, charges businesses slightly less than Venmo (2.75%) to use its service to accept payments.

For more on PayPal, watch this video:

Facebook (FB) and Snapchat both offer peer to peer payment, but they don’t yet make money from them. Apple (AAPL)is also reportedly planning to debut a peer-to-peer payment system for iPhone users.

But there could be room for a number of these services for merchants. Forrester predicts that peer to peer payments will reach $17 billion in transaction volume by 2019.

About the Author
By Leena Rao
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
Fortune Secondary Logo
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

sam altman
AIOpenAI
Sam Altman tells staff at an all-hands that OpenAI is negotiating a deal with the Pentagon, after Trump orders the end of Anthropic contracts
By Sharon GoldmanFebruary 27, 2026
8 hours ago
Future of Workthe future of work
Have good taste? It may just get you a job during the AI jobs apocalypse, says Sam Altman
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezFebruary 27, 2026
8 hours ago
CybersecurityMeta
Trump’s FTC backs off social media regulation despite finding that nearly 20% of America’s children are online for 4 hours or more
By Catherina GioinoFebruary 27, 2026
9 hours ago
Emil Michael smirks
AIAnthropic
Emil Michael, the Silicon Valley exec turned Trump official leading the war against Anthropic, has deep ties to the tech world
By Lily Mae LazarusFebruary 27, 2026
9 hours ago
AIMilitary
Trump orders U.S. government to stop using Anthropic but gives Pentagon six months to phase it out while Hegseth adds supply-chain risk designation
By Jason MaFebruary 27, 2026
10 hours ago
Arts & EntertainmentHollywood
The battle over WBD left three big winners on Wall Street—while the thousands who lost out will remain behind the scenes
By Geoff ColvinFebruary 27, 2026
10 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Innovation
An MIT roboticist who cofounded bankrupt robot vacuum maker iRobot says Elon Musk’s vision of humanoid robot assistants is ‘pure fantasy thinking’
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezFebruary 25, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Commentary
'The Pitt': a masterclass display of DEI in action 
By Robert RabenFebruary 26, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Japanese companies are paying older workers to sit by a window and do nothing—while Western CEOs demand super-AI productivity just to keep your job
By Orianna Rosa RoyleFebruary 27, 2026
16 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
It’s more than George Clooney moving to France: America is becoming the ‘uncool’ country that people want to move away from
By Nick LichtenbergFebruary 27, 2026
23 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Jeff Bezos says being lazy, not working hard, is the root of anxiety: ‘The stress goes away the second I take that first step’
By Sydney LakeFebruary 25, 2026
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Gen Z Olympic champion Eileen Gu says she rewires her brain daily to be more successful—and multimillionaire founder Arianna Huffington says it really does work
By Orianna Rosa RoyleFebruary 25, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.