The online payment service millions use to pay and get paid without sharing card details. PayPal also owns Zettle, the card-reader business with a London presence, and offers 12-month UK internships.
PayPal is one of the best-known ways to pay online. You link a bank account or card to PayPal, and shops, marketplaces and individuals can then take payment without ever seeing your card number. People also use it to send money to friends, pay for goods and give to charity. Businesses use it to take payments and handle refunds and disputes.
The company was founded in December 1998 (first as Fieldlink, then Confinity) by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek, and merged with X.com, which Elon Musk had founded. eBay bought it in 2002 and spun it off again in 2015. PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, California; its European headquarters is in Luxembourg. In the UK, PayPal owns Zettle, the card-reader company it bought in 2018 (then called iZettle), and advertises UK roles.
PayPal's family of products includes Venmo, Braintree (payments for larger online businesses), Zettle, Xoom for international transfers and PayPal Honey, a shopping tool. It has also launched PYUSD, a US-dollar stablecoin, and added crypto buying and selling. Its charity arm, the PayPal Giving Fund, helps people donate online.
We did not find a formal company mission statement in the sources we read.
For young people, PayPal's careers site lists a 12-month industry-placement internship with opportunities in the UK, aimed at undergraduates in their penultimate year. Graduate and placement roles have also been advertised in London, and Zettle by PayPal hires in London. The programme details we found are dated (2024 to 2025 start dates), so check the current PayPal careers listings.
Website: www.paypal.com
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