Venmo hasn't been very successful thus far. They have a small to mid sized user base and they are currently operating at a loss (no fees on transactions that cost them money), so I think $26m is a pretty good number.

Their pricing is 3% on credit cards, and 0 on everything else. At best they would see 1% margin on credit cards, so $250M at 1%, is $2.5M/year. 10X optimistic projected revenue is a great deal for Venmo, and BrainTree is getting a functioning custodial account system and the team that built it.

There have been several "pay-your-friends" apps that achieve a lot of success for a while because they're free, then lose all momentum when they start charging. I'm not sure if Venmo is in the same boat, but it seems possible.

I remember waaaaay back in the day when PayPal was called Confinity and they were doing this for PalmPilot. They pivoted and the rest is history.

The number is a reflection of 3 things:

- Multiple of revenues - Tech acquired vs time to build and opportunity cost. - Braintree's perception of how much they can aggressively grow the offering when they offer it to their much larger customer base

So it is what it is.

They're only processing $10M of transactions/month, so even if they were to start charging fees, that wouldn't translate into much revenue. Agree that this is a great exit for the team.

Seems high to me. Minimal traction in a difficult-to-make-money niche (paying people you know).