PayPal, the digital US payment giant, has acquired Swedish FinTech startup iZettle to boost it's in-store purchasing capabilities.
The deal will see iZettle integrated into the California-based company where it said it will become a centre of excellence for PayPal's in-store products and services offering for small businesses.
Jacob de Geer, CEO and co-founder of iZettle, said the opportunity to join PayPal was too good to pass up as the two companies share similar beliefs and have complementary products that could help scale its reach across the world and help to level the playing field for small businesses in the process.
"The global scale and 19 million merchant relationships that PayPal has enables us to move faster and reach further than ever before. Combined with the iZettle brand, and talent this means we're ready to level the playing field for small businesses," said Geer.
"That's why we are so excited to join PayPal. We'll continue to work in much the same way we always have, just as a member of a global family with great expansion opportunities. We'll continue pursuing our mission of helping small businesses succeed in a world of giants and our teams and culture will remain out key strengths."
The Swedish startup, which was founded in Stockholm in 2010, started out selling credit and debit card readers that could be plugged into smartphones and tablets. The company has a presence in 11 countries, including Brazil, Mexico and across Europe and its brand is familiar in British coffee shops and restaurants.
PayPal, which was formally part of eBay and now a standalone digital mobile payments company, will add iZettle's in-store payment technology, which includes credit and debit card readers that can be plugged into smartphones and tablets, to its growing business. The company already owns peer-to-peer payment company Venmo which acquired business loan provider Swift Financial last year as it seeks to compete with the likes of Apple and the many banks improving digital financial offerings.
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