The news: PayPal launched Zettle, its small-business-centric point-of-sale (POS) solution, in the US. PayPal acquired Zettle (previously known as iZettle) in 2018 for a massive $2.2 billion. At the time, the Sweden-based startup had 500,000 merchants and operated in 12 countries throughout Latin America and Europe, where much of its business still exists today.
What this means: Zettle’s US launch pushes PayPal further into lucrative spaces.
Stiff competition: PayPal needs Zettle to stand out from other in-store payment solutions. Square, Fiserv’s Clover, and Stripe all have similar in-store and small-business payment capabilities, which may complicate Zettle’s success. But Zettle has PayPal’s backing—along with its various business tools and integrations—so businesses might be more likely to opt for it instead: They’d be able to bundle Zettle’s POS solutions with PayPal’s existing merchant solutions, which are interoperable—making PayPal a one-stop shop for all their business needs.
The bigger picture: Zettle’s US launch comes as PayPal works aggressively to expand: The company has entered new sectors like cryptocurrencies and buy now, pay later and has also built out existing solutions in the payment and retail spaces. The Zettle launch could further these ambitions and help it get even closer to super app status—something PayPal CEO Dan Schulman envisions for the firm.