Business
PayPal Continues Acquisition Spree, Buys E-commerce Startup Led By Former Obama Campaign CTO
Modest cofounders Dylan Richard and Harper Reed worked for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign before starting their Chicago-based mobile apps startup. (Photo courtesy of Modest)
(Forbes) – In the months leading up to its split with eBay, PayPal made two significant acquisitions. The first was the $280 million it laid out for payments technology startup Paydiant, while the second came last month in the form of an $890 million all-cash deal for international money transfer company Xoom.
Following its spin off from eBay, the San Jose, Calif.-based company is continuing its buying spree, announcing on Wednesday that it was purchasing Modest, a Chicago startup that builds mobile e-commerce applications for small businesses. PayPal did not disclose the terms of the agreement, which will see all 20 Modest employees join its Braintree subsidiary in Chicago.
Founded in 2013 by four engineers for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, Modest launched at the beginning of the year and only has a handful of small business clients. Still, there is an obvious “synergy” between the payments powerhouse and the young startup said Modest cofounder and CEO Harper Reed, who noted that the deal could put his company’s offerings in front of thousands of PayPal merchants.
