The news: Venmo users can now send and receive money from PayPal users across 90 markets, per a press release—opening up Venmo to 200 million more PayPal users outside of the US.

Venmo users will be able to send payments domestically and internationally to PayPal users with just a phone number. For PayPal recipients outside the US, Venmo will automatically show users the payment amount in their preferred currency.

How we got here: PayPal has been looking for growth opportunities after a “transition year” focus on branded checkout volume failed to deliver. 

While the fintech giant has been laying groundwork for future volume captures in agentic commerce, this growth has yet to materialize, forcing PayPal to look for more turn-key solutions for driving volume growth. Bringing Paypal’s network to Venmo’s members could offer a quicker solution for payment volume pickup.

Why this matters: Venmo’s usability has drastically widened. While the P2P app boasts 82.1 million US users, per our forecast, its acceptance outside the US is nonexistent: Venmo only serves residents of the US, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands. 

Allowing users to send payments to PayPal members effectively marries its dual P2P services. This could encourage US users traveling internationally to spend through Venmo to PayPal-exclusive merchants if they don’t already have PayPal’s mobile app set up. This also helps bridge PayPal and Venmo’s generation gap, linking baby boomers and Gen Xers using PayPal with their Venmo-using kids and grandchildren.

Zooming out: While this integration emphasizes cross-border family and friend P2P transactions, Venmo also has an opportunity to stretch into the remittance market through a deeper partnership with PayPal’s Xoom. 

This could build on PayPal’s global initiative, PayPal World.

Implications for P2P providers: Consumers want a one-stop shop for sending and receiving money, regardless of where they are in the world. Prioritizing integrations with providers abroad to make money transfers seamless for users can be a tool to retain user loyalty.