PayPal was founded by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, Elon Musk in 1998.

Who are PayPal's investors?

PayPal's investors include Mercury Fund, Sequoia Capital, Upfront Ventures.

Is PayPal publicly traded?

Yes — PayPal trades on NASDAQ under the ticker PYPL.

Where is PayPal headquartered?

PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, US.

PayPal

NASDAQ: PYPL

San Jose, US · Founded 1998 · 38,780 employees on LinkedIn · Public · 3 known investors

Find your way into PayPal

4,696 people in our graph share verified history with the PayPal team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Javier Solterounlockedknows Luke Nosek · together at Netscape (overlapped)

×2knows the team · via University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

knows the team · via Facebook

×3knows the team · via Stanford University

knows the team · via Coda

knows the team · via University of Oxford

PayPal is the payments company that came out of the March 2000 merger of Confinity — founded in 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek and Ken Howery to beam money between Palm Pilots — and Elon Musk's online bank X.com. It took the PayPal name in 2001, went public in February 2002, and eBay acquired it that October for $1.5 billion. eBay spun it back out as an independent public company in 2015. Its early team became the most-cited alumni network in technology, the so-called PayPal Mafia, which went on to found Tesla, SpaceX, YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, Palantir and Affirm.

Founders & leadership

PayPal was founded in 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, and Elon Musk.

Max Levchin in 𝕏Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer1999–2002Co-founder of PayPal; founder, chairman & CEO of Affirm; partner at SciFi VC

Peter Thiel in 𝕏CEO, Chairman, Co-Founder1998–2002Co-founder and CEO of PayPal, an online payments company. His expertise spans private equity, macro-finance, venture capital, and executive management.

Luke Nosek in 𝕏Co-founder, VP, Bus Dev, Marketing, Strategy1998–2002Co-founder of PayPal (1998), where he served as VP of Marketing Strategy, helped secure lead investors for the company's first three financing rounds, drove its adoption on eBay through viral marketing, and developed products responsible for a large share of its profits. He is now a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund, focusing on early-stage companies with strong founding CEOs.

Ken Howery in 𝕏Co-founder, Founding CFO1998–2002Ken Howery co-founded PayPal, serving as its first CFO, where he worked on private fundraising, the company's public offering, and its sale to eBay. He later co-founded and was a partner at the venture firm Founders Fund, served as U.S. Ambassador to Sweden (2019–2021) and subsequently as U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, and holds a degree in Economics from Stanford University.

Elon Musk 𝕏Co-founder (X.com); CEO 20001999–2002Founder of SpaceX and xAI; CEO of Tesla

Alex Chrissin 𝕏President & CEO2023–2026Angel investor

Reid Hoffman in 𝕏Board member from 1998; Executive Vice President1998–2002Co-founder of LinkedIn; Partner at Greylock

Investors · 3

Mercury FundHouston · $250K – $4M

Sequoia CapitalMenlo Park · $4.4M – $214M

Upfront VenturesLos Angeles · $1M – $10M

Founder mafia

The PayPal mafia →

115 people who came through PayPal went on to found or lead other companies.

Peter ThielCo-founder & CEOFounded Palantir Reid HoffmanBoard member from 1998; Executive Vice PresidentFounded LinkedIn +2 David SacksCOO / Head of ProductFounded Yammer Keith RaboisExecutive Vice President, Business Development, Public Affairs & PolicyFounded Opendoor Joe LonsdaleIntern, FinanceFounded Opto +5 Elon MuskCo-founder (X.com); CEO 2000Founded Tesla +5 Max LevchinCo-founder & CTOFounded Glow +1 Yonatan BergmanMobile Engineering ManagerFounded Empathy Kanishk ParasharManager, Software DevelopmentFounded Powder +1 Adolfo BabatzProduct Marketing & Engagement Manager, Latin-AmericaFounded Clip +1 Shirshanka DasSenior Software EngineerFounded Acryl Data +1 Eldar SadikovSr. Director, Product & EngineeringFounded Jetlore +1

+ 103 more

Frequently asked questions

What does PayPal do?: PayPal is the payments company that came out of the March 2000 merger of Confinity — founded in 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek and Ken Howery to beam money between Palm Pilots — and Elon Musk's online bank X.com. It took the PayPal name in 2001, went public in February 2002, and eBay acquired it that October for $1.5 billion. eBay spun it back out as an independent public company in 2015. Its early team became the most-cited alumni network in technology, the so-called PayPal Mafia, which went on to found Tesla, SpaceX, YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, Palantir and Affirm.
Who founded PayPal?: PayPal was founded by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, Elon Musk in 1998.
Who are PayPal's investors?: PayPal's investors include Mercury Fund, Sequoia Capital, Upfront Ventures.
Is PayPal publicly traded?: Yes — PayPal trades on NASDAQ under the ticker PYPL.
Where is PayPal headquartered?: PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, US.