In mid-July, a PayPal employee told Bank Innovation, off the record, that Braintree was “quietly being shopped around.” It’s not so quiet anymore. It seems Braintree has been looking to sell itself for $1 billion and was in talks with Google and Square as well as PayPal, though PayPal seems to be the only active party at the moment. Braintree is a prominent player in the payments processing space, but this space has grown more crowded since the company was founded in 2007. Braintree acquired social person-to-person payments player Venmo for $26 million and has since overseen the launch of Venmo Touch, which enables one-touch payments within apps and sites. Stripe has been a particular thorn in Braintree’s side, gaining traction with large online sellers and cutting a deal with e-commerce platform Shopify. Depsite the more crowded payments space, industry watchers such as Experian’s Cherian Abraham see Braintree on a growth trajectory. “They’ve made good bets, their value is growing,” he told Bank Innovation. TechCrunch notes Braintree’s CEO Bill Ready has a history of getting companies acquired, but calls the $1 billion valuation unrealistic. Braintree processed $10 billion in payments over the past year.
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