Dive Brief:
- PayPal Holdings is partnering with Rainforest, the Atlanta-based embedded payment company, to provide its payment services to Rainforest’s software platform users, PayPal said in a Wednesday press release.
- As part of the partnership, Rainforest’s clients can allow merchants to receive payments via PayPal, Venmo and PayPal’s buy now, pay later services, according to the press release.
- The PayPal-Rainforest collaboration aims to speed up payments, reduce late payments and trim the time businesses spend following up on unpaid invoices, per the press release. The tie-up is also aimed at helping “software platforms shift more processing volume away from offline payment methods like cash and checks,” the release said.
Dive Insight:
In the past, software companies have had to integrate multiple tools to facilitate various payment methods. But with Rainforest’s PayPal integration, software companies can use PayPal’s service to bypass the need for a patchwork of payment systems.
“Vertical software is a strategic growth area for PayPal as more commerce moves directly into software,” Taira Hall, senior vice president and head of SMB commercial at PayPal, said in the release. The tie-up will allow for software that’s streamlined, scalable, and purpose-built.”
The PayPal partnership follows Rainforest’s recent fundraising ramp-up.
After raising nearly $12 million in seed funding in 2023, the company raised $20 million the following year, according to the company’s previous press releases. Last September, Rainforest brought in another $29 million from investors to hire more employees, expand into Canada and develop new products, the company said in a separate release.
Meanwhile, PayPal’s deal with Rainforest comes as the digital payment giant remains at a crossroads.
Earlier this month, the company appointed former HP CEO Enrique Lores as its new chief executive, a move he made after serving on PayPal’s board for five years. This week, Bloomberg News reported that fellow fintech firm Stripe is weighing whether to buy PayPal or at least parts of it. Stripe declined to comment on the report.
