Venmo has 40 million users, PayPal reveals for first time

Popular payment app Venmo has ushered in 40 million users to the platform, its parent company PayPal announced on Wednesday.

This is the first time PayPal has disclosed user numbers for the millennial-focused, peer-to-peer app.

In its first-quarter earnings report, PayPal said it now has a total 277 million total customer accounts — including 22 million merchant accounts. Total payment volume for Venmo grew 73% year over year to $21 billion in the first quarter, the company said. PayPal said Venmo is still on pace to do $100 billion in payment volume this year.

"Venmo continues its significant momentum," PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said on a call with analysts. "As user growth continues to accelerate, merchants are increasingly turning to Venmo as a way to attract a valuable and engaged consumer base."

Rival Square, run by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, reported 15 million monthly active users for its Cash App as of December.

Venmo has announced partnerships with Chipotle, GrubHub and Uber, among other merchants. These partnerships are a key way the app brings in revenue. Schulman said Venmo is on pace to do $300 million in revenue this year.

The finance app also operates like a social network. It lets users comment on payments and see what friends are spending on. Venmo was originally bought by BrainTree for $26 million, and BrainTree was later bought by PayPal.

PayPal reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings after the market close Wednesday. The company reported adjusted earnings of 78 cents per share, compared with the 68 cents forecast by Refinitiv consensus estimates. Revenue for the quarter was in line with Wall Street's $4.13 billion estimates.

Total payment volume — a closely watched metric for the company — came in at $161 billion, a 25% increase year over year. This was below the $163 billion that analysts polled by FactSet had been expecting. Shares of PayPal fell as much as 2% in after-hours trading before paring losses.

Venmo has yet to become a money-maker for its parent company. PayPal has not given an exact target date for profitability.

"We're certainly pleased with the monetization of Venmo and the rate at which that is progressing ," PayPal Chief Operating Officer Bill Ready said on the company's earnings call.

Ready highlighted instant transfers and Venmo's debit card as bright spots in revenue growth. He also addressed a recent Wall Street Journal report that the company was looking to launch a Venmo-branded credit card.

"We have certainly seen great demand across our user base for more and more products from Venmo, and we are engaging with the banking system in a very broad way across PayPal and Venmo," Ready said. "To be very clear, there is nothing beyond Venmo debit card that we are looking at at this time."

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