Venmo Overhaul Tests PayPal’s Consumer Growth Plan

PayPal Holdings’ Venmo has rebuilt its app from the ground up as it continues expanding the app to become a more comprehensive commerce and financial services ecosystem.

The redesigned Venmo app features a more modern architecture, more personalization around discounts and cash back, and a social layer that lets users share experiences at restaurants and businesses with friends, the company said in a Monday (May 11) press release.

Users can now react to payment notes with emojis and GIFs, share information about purchases with friends, and receive personalized cash-back offers, product suggestions and reminders about upcoming bills, according to the release.

This new experience will roll out to customers in the coming weeks. In the months ahead, the Venmo app will gain additional updates that make groups, gifting, scheduled payments and splitting easier to find and use; help users see, manage and do more with their money, and discover, activate and track rewards, per the release.

Alexis Sowa, head of consumer financial services and Venmo at PayPal, said in the release that the new app “lays the foundation for something bigger: Venmo becoming the go-to money movement app with products and features we’re building to fulfill a broader set of financial needs.”

When PayPal Holdings announced April 29 that it reorganized into a new three-business operating model, the company said one of the businesses is consumer financial services and Venmo, which will expand Venmo into a broader consumer financial services platform.

The company also announced that it appointed Sowa as interim lead of consumer financial services and Venmo. In her profile on the company’s website, PayPal Holdings says Sowa is responsible for “driving Venmo’s evolution from a peer-to-peer payments app into a comprehensive commerce and financial services ecosystem, enabling millions of consumers to pay, shop and manage money seamlessly.”

During a May 5 earnings call, PayPal Holdings CEO Enrique Lores said that by positioning Venmo and its broader ecosystem as a more comprehensive financial hub for users, PayPal is expanding its consumer financial services ambitions.

“Venmo will be a key component of our growth plans moving forward, supported by its strong brand and younger demographic,” Lores said.