PayPal Plans Job Cuts
Hey Payments Fanatic!
PayPal is planning to cut costs and jobs as new CEO Enrique Lores faces mounting pressure to turn around a company that has struggled against fierce competition, most notably from Stripe.
PayPal isn't alone. Across the FinTech space, layoffs have been picking up pace: Coinbase announced it will cut roughly 14% of its workforce (~700 employees), and Block said earlier this year it would let go of 4,000 workers.
What's striking about PayPal's direction is how sharply it diverges from former CEO Alex Chriss's own stated priorities when he took the role. He came in championing innovation, and now the focus appears to be cost discipline above all else.
(Last week, I covered how PayPal is reportedly exploring making Venmo a separate business entity, another sign the company is rethinking its structure.)
The big question: what is all this cost-cutting actually for? Is PayPal slimming down to become an attractive acquisition target? Or is it clearing the runway to reinvest in new products? The answer will tell us a lot about what PayPal thinks its future looks like.
Scroll down to discover what else is happening in the payments’ space👇 See you tomorrow!
Cheers,
Q&A
📰 Mastering payments in APAC. Brian Sze, APAC General Manager at Checkout.com, spoke with Arthur Bedel about the company’s rapid expansion across key Asian markets and the shift toward AI-driven, agentic commerce. The discussion highlights how APAC’s fragmented payments landscape is accelerating innovation at the intersection of digital payments and intelligent transactions.
NEWS
🇿🇦 dLocal and inDrive launch cashless payments for rides in South Africa. Through dLocal's infrastructure, inDrive can now accept local cards in-app, including real-time payouts via PayShap, split transactions automatically between the driver's share and the platform fee, and pay out driver earnings through South African domestic rails.
🇦🇪 First Abu Dhabi Bank and Mastercard launch multi-tiered SME Commercial Cards Suite to accelerate digital business payments in the UAE. The solution integrates with FAB’s digital banking platform to provide greater control, visibility, and flexibility for growing enterprises.
🇺🇸 PayPal plans job cuts as FinTech’s new CEO pursues turnaround strategy. PayPal employed around 23,800 people at the end of the year, meaning a workforce reduction of that size could eliminate more than 4,500 jobs. It’s part of the company’s plan to realize at least $1.5 billion in savings over the next two to three years, according to a statement.
🇮🇳 Razorpay gets shareholder approval for Rs 2,700 crore IPO. “The company intends to list its equity shares on one or more stock exchanges to enable the shareholders to have a formal marketplace for dealing with such equity shares. The company proposes to create, offer, issue, and allot fresh equity shares bearing a face value of Rs 2 each up to an aggregate of Rs 2,700 crore,” Razorpay said.
🇮🇳 UPI records 22.35 billion transactions in April 2026, continues digital payments momentum. The platform continues to play a key role in transforming the way transactions are carried out, with increasing acceptance among users. Read more
🌍 Thunes and Vodacom Tanzania unite to power cross-border M-Pesa Payments across China and Uganda. Vodacom is leveraging the Thunes Direct Global Network to enable secure, real-time cross-border payments for Tanzanian traders, addressing inefficiencies in transactions with markets like Uganda and China and strengthening mobile money innovation across Africa.
🇨🇦 Wise introduces first-of-its-kind multi-currency Interest feature in Canada. Eligible customers can now opt into the new Interest feature to earn a market-leading return on balances held in CAD, USD, EUR, and GBP from the convenience of their Wise multi-currency account.
🇨🇦 Visa expands ‘Agentic Ready’ program to Canada to advance AI-driven commerce. The program is designed to help the Canadian payments ecosystem prepare for the next evolution of commerce, where AI agents may act on behalf of consumers to initiate and complete transactions securely and at scale.
🇺🇸 FinScan ships digital wallet and stablecoin payments screening for global AML. FinScan Payments solution now supports screening for stablecoin transactions and digital wallets across global sanctions lists, alongside traditional payment rails, enabling a single, scalable approach for payments compliance.
🇺🇸 Electronic Arts and Visa team up to launch a global, multi-year partnership with EA SPORTS. By combining EA’s interactive, participatory platforms with Visa’s expansive global brand, this partnership demonstrates how the line between sports fandom and video games continues to blur as audiences increasingly play, watch, and connect across both physical and virtual sports.
🌍 Kraken has partnered with MoneyGram to enable users to convert crypto into cash through a global network of physical locations. The collaboration improves fiat off-ramps, especially for users in emerging markets, while supporting MoneyGram’s broader push into digital assets and modern payment infrastructure.
🇺🇸 Corpay signs JP Morgan and BVNK as blockchain infrastructure partners. These agreements expand Corpay Cross-Border’s multi-rail platform by adding blockchain-based settlement across select corridors. Corpay now supports multiple global payment rails, enabling clients to access different settlement methods through a single integrated platform.
🌎 Binance Pay targets 10+ countries for QR crypto payments by Q3, building on early traction across Asia Pacific and Latin America. The product enables real-time, zero-fee crypto payments via existing QR codes, supporting the broader push to integrate digital assets into everyday transactions.
Want your message in front of 100.000+ FinTech fanatics, founders, investors, and operators?
Shoot me a message on LinkedIn or send me an e-mail.
Comments ()