PayPal Leads Investment In PPRO

PPRO Group, a U.K. cross-border ePayment provider, announced on Monday (July 16) a $50 million round of investment led by PayPal. In a PayPal press release, the company said that in addition to its investment, Citi Ventures and returning investor HPE Growth Capital participated in the round of fundraising.

PPRO enables businesses to accept more than 140 alternative payments around the globe, partnering with payment service providers and financial institutions. Through this investment, PayPal said PPRO plans to accelerate the expansion of its payments platform and international presence of its alternative payments-acquiring business.

“A merchant’s choice of payments partner is increasingly being driven by the ever-expanding range of locally relevant payment methods available,” said Arnold Goldberg, PayPal’s vice president of merchant product and technology, in the press release. “PayPal is pleased to support PPRO as the company continues to grow. We recently signed a commercial agreement with them to provide a wide range of payment options for our merchants, so consumers can shop seamlessly across borders through the new PayPal Checkout with Smart Payment Buttons, Braintree and all of our merchant products. This is yet another way we are positioning ourselves to be the one-stop solution for global digital commerce.”

According to PayPal, in many markets, consumers are choosing to make payments via alternative methods, such as bank transfers, eWallets and cash. Online merchants that can offer the right mix of payments can see higher conversion rates for cross-border transactions.

“PPRO is a pioneer in providing value-added acquiring services for alternative payment methods, and we are one of the fastest-growing FinTech businesses in Europe,” said Simon Black, CEO of PPRO Group. “Adding support from PayPal and Citi Ventures alongside our existing investors will make it possible to bring the benefits of alternative payment method acceptance to even more businesses around the world.”

PayPal and PPRO said the investment is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.