Fundraising Fox
Venmo
San Francisco, US · 7 known investors
Find your way into Venmo
Sign up to see every warm intro you have to Venmo
- Paths you didn't know you had: your email and LinkedIn already hold routes to the Venmo team. We find them for you
- 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections: the friend-of-a-friend routes that take hours to manually find through your inbox or LinkedIn
- Answers now, not in days: momentum is everything in a raise. Skip asking around whether someone knows someone
Days of research, done the moment you sign in, with every route ranked by how warm it is.
Venmo is a digital payment app that enables users to buy, hold, sell, and transfer cryptocurrencies directly within the platform, starting with as little as $1. The service allows peer-to-peer crypto transfers between friends and integration with the Venmo Credit Card for automatic crypto purchases from cash back rewards.
Also known as Venmo · Venmo, LLC
Founders & leadership
Investors · 7
How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Felicis Ventures's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Founder Collective's portfolio page · funding news · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Greycroft's portfolio page · funding news · the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us
How we know: Lerer Hippeau's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us
How we know: RRE Ventures's portfolio page · the VCSheet dataset · research · en.wikipedia.org · Not right? Tell us
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Venmo operates a mobile payments application in the United States that lets users send and receive money with other Venmo users, for example to split bills, everyday necessities and shared activities such as takeout or travel, and to send gift cards from selected brands through an in-app Gift function. Alongside peer-to-peer transfers, the app supports paying businesses and checking out at thousands of connected apps and websites using the Venmo balance or a linked payment method, subject to identity verification for balance-funded purchases.
Venmo also distributes card products. The Venmo Debit Card is a Mastercard issued by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. with no monthly fee or minimum balance, and the Venmo Credit Card is a Visa issued by Synchrony Bank with no annual fee, up to 3% cash back on eligible purchases and no credit-score impact if an application is declined. A rewards program called Venmo Stash offers up to 5% cash back at selected brands for Venmo Debit Card or Venmo checkout spending, capped at $100 per month and with the top tier requiring $1,500 in qualifying monthly spend, with higher tiers unlocked as monthly spending grows.
The app additionally allows users to buy, track, transfer and sell cryptocurrency starting from $1. Some custody, trading and transfer services are performed for Venmo by Paxos Trust Company, LLC, and PayPal USD (PYUSD) is issued by Paxos rather than Venmo. Venmo states it is not a bank, does not take deposits and is not FDIC insured, and that crypto holdings are not deposits and are not eligible for pass-through FDIC insurance.
Business model
Venmo provides consumer payment accounts and cards, merchant and in-app checkout acceptance, a cash-back rewards program, and crypto trading services delivered through its mobile app, with card issuance handled by partner banks and crypto custody and trading by a licensed service provider.
Disclosures on Venmo's site indicate it charges disclosed fees on cryptocurrency purchases and sales and, for currencies other than PYUSD, earns a spread embedded in the exchange rate on each crypto purchase and sale.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, risks & controversies
Market position
Venmo positions itself as a broad consumer payments app spanning peer-to-peer transfers, card spending, online checkout and crypto, with acceptance across thousands of apps and websites.
Technology
A mobile payments application supporting peer-to-peer transfers, card-linked spending, merchant checkout integrations, and buying, tracking, transferring and selling cryptocurrency, with custody, trading and transfer functions for crypto performed by Paxos Trust Company, LLC.
Go-to-market
Distribution is through the consumer Venmo mobile app, co-branded debit and credit card products issued by partner banks, a rewards program, and integration with thousands of third-party apps and websites for checkout.
US-based consumers making peer-to-peer payments and card purchases, and businesses that create a Venmo business profile to engage customers and accept payments.
Geography
Operates in the United States and its territories. Crypto buying, selling, transferring and holding is unavailable in Hawaii and where prohibited by law; Venmo is licensed for virtual currency business activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
Risks & controversies
Venmo discloses that buying and selling cryptocurrency carries a number of risks and may result in significant losses, that crypto held in a Venmo account is not a deposit and is not eligible for pass-through FDIC insurance and may lose value, and that cryptocurrency activity is not a regulated activity in many US states and territories.
Compiled by commissioned research from 7 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Related companies · 6
Companies working in the same space as Venmo.
Timeline · 17
launches, deals, and filingsAlongside the reorganisation, Alexis Sowa was named interim lead of Consumer Financial Services & Venmo; Frank Keller became president of Checkout Solutions & PayPal, Jeff Pomeroy interim lead of Payment Services & Crypto, and Anshu Bhardwaj chief AI transformation & simplification officer. Diego Scotti and Michelle Gill are leaving PayPal.
As part of a three-business operating model, PayPal placed Venmo in a newly created Consumer Financial Services & Venmo division intended to expand it into a broader consumer financial services platform.
PayPal announced that PayPal and Venmo users can send and receive money to and from each other nationally and internationally, using the recipient's linked phone number.
Some custody, trading and transfer services for cryptocurrency on Venmo are performed by licensed service provider Paxos Trust Company, LLC, which also issues PayPal USD (PYUSD).
Venmo markets Venmo Stash, a tiered rewards program offering up to 5% cash back at select brands for spending with the Venmo Debit Card or Venmo checkout, capped at $100 per month.
Venmo states it is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services; crypto services are unavailable in Hawaii and where prohibited by law.
Venmo announced the start of its rollout of cryptocurrency trading, initially available only to selected users.
PayPal rolled out instant transfer on Venmo, depositing funds to users' debit cards typically within 30 minutes for a fee.
Venmo settled with the US Federal Trade Commission over several privacy and security violations related to default public transactions and other features, and changed the corresponding settings.
PayPal announced Venmo was working with select merchants accepting Venmo as payment; initial launch partners were Munchery and Gametime.
PayPal acquired Braintree for $800 million, bringing Venmo under PayPal ownership.
$800M source ↗
After experimenting with food trucks, charity donations and merchants, the founders settled on Venmo with Friends; the app launched on June 5, 2012.
$26.2M source ↗
Venmo engaged Philadelphia law firm Morgan Lewis to ensure compliance in every state, as text-message payments were technically illegal at the time.
First institutional seed financing of $1.2 million, led by RRE Ventures, following the Haiti fundraising proof of concept.
$1.2M source ↗
Through Morgan Lewis, Venmo partnered with entrepreneur Peter Groverman to raise money to rebuild The New Life Children's Home in La Plaine, Port-au-Prince; the first $300,000 processed on the platform funded the rebuild.
$300K source ↗
Kortina and Magdon-Ismail launched Venmo in 2009, initially allowing people to text a band to receive an MP3 by email, before pivoting to payments.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 7
primary sources listed
- Venmovenmo.com · web
- Venmo - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org · web
7 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Venmo do?
- Venmo is a US payments app for sending money to friends, paying businesses, card spending, rewards and buying crypto.
- Who founded Venmo?
- Venmo was founded by iqram magdon-ismail.
- Who are Venmo's investors?
- Venmo's investors include Accel, Felicis Ventures, Founder Collective, Greycroft, Lerer Hippeau, RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures.
- Where is Venmo headquartered?
- Venmo is headquartered in San Francisco, US.