The news: Venmo deepened its Stash rewards program and tapped rising stars Rachel Sennott and Jordan Firstman to star in a new ad campaign, per a press release.

Venmo users can earn up to 5% cash back at select merchants within their chosen merchant bundle, which can include brands like McDonalds, TikTok Shop, Uber, Amazon, Walmart, Sephora, and Ulta.

The expansion gives Venmo P2P app users the same breadth of cash back rewards as Venmo Debit Mastercard cardholders.

Why this matters: Venmo is trying to win Gen Z loyalty, especially as the Venmo Debit Mastercard and P2P checkout experience drive growth for the payment platform:

• Venmo revenues grew 20% over the fiscal year to $1.7 billion, per PayPal’s most recent earnings.
• And Venmo debit card TPV surged 50% YoY.

Expanding Stash rewards helps Venmo lock in more Gen Z users: Loyalty points and rewards drive Gen Z shopping behavior more when shopping online, per our Pulse of the Consumer: Personal Care and Beauty survey.

The brands participating in Venmo’s Stash bundles also poll well with this generational cohort: Mass retailers and beauty specialty retailers rank among Gen Z’s most preferred places to shop both online and in-store. Gen Zers are more likely to make a purchase at speciality beauty retailers than older peers. 

Tapping Rachel Sennott for Venmo’s new campaign may also drive spend: Gen Zers are two times more likely than Boomers to buy based on celebrity endorsement, per Gitnux’s Celebrity Endorsement Statistics 2025.

Implications for payment providers: As payment providers try to keep the next generation of young adults in their ecosystems, marketing for product rollouts and perks needs to happen where this cohort lives—on social media. 

Gen Zers use YouTube at nearly double the rate of millennials, per YouGov, making YouTube ads a savvy place to capture the generation’s attention. 

With entertainment also being the chief reason young people use social channels, per Harris Poll, ads that riff on pop culture—like Gap’s push toward “fashiontainment”—may succeed well for financial services.

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