Shares of PayPal (PYPL) are lower in morning trading after the company promoted Amit Jhawar to the position of general manager for money-transfer service Venmo, the second time in two years a new manager has been named.
NEW VENMO LEADER: PayPal promoted Amit Jhawar was to the role of general manager of Venmo in August, replacing the executive in charge for the second time in two years, as the company is looking to transform the service into a money-maker, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Jhawar previously served as operations chief of Braintree, a PayPal unit that allows internet companies to accept mobile payments. Venmo has been popular with consumers with over $14B in payment volume moved across the service in the second quarter, however, it is a financial drain on PayPal as it does not charge most users to move money. Bill Ready, PayPal’s chief operating officer, said Venmo will be Jhawar’s sole focus and that is “indicative of how much its importance has risen inside of PayPal”.Â
GENERAL MANAGERS: Jhawar is Venmo’s third general manager since the end of 2016 and his predecessors split their time between Venmo and other PayPal projects. Joanna Lambert, who managed Venmo until early 2017, was also responsible for PayPal’s push into financial services for consumers, left in March for a job at Verizon (VZ). Lambert’s successor, Kevin Laracey, also handled PayPal’s Paydiant division, which develops technology allowing physical retailers to accept mobile payments and coupons. Ready said Venmo’s staff changes and other challenges are the “growing pains of a rapidly growing startup”.Â
WHAT’S NOTABLE: Over the past year, PayPal has tried to turn Venmo into a more mainstream financial service enabling payments at Uber, Grubhub (GRUB ) and about two million other online retailers as well as issuing customers plastic Venmo debit cards that enable them to spend funds offline. In addition, hedge-fund firm Third Point took an $800M stake in PayPal earlier this year and said it expected Venmo to add $1B in annual revenue for the company within the next three years.
