Venmo expands beyond peer-to-peer payments with new debit card rewards and checkout features to become a full-service fintech platform

Venmo, once known mainly for splitting dinner tabs and birthday gifts, is making a serious push into everyday consumer spending.

The PayPal-owned app rolled out a series of updates Wednesday that signal a clear shift away from its peer-to-peer roots. The goal: to become a full-fledged financial tool people use for everything from retail checkouts to earning cashback rewards.

Among the updates, Venmo is beefing up its debit card experience. Users can now get up to 15% cashback at big-name retailers like Walmart, Sephora, McDonald’s, Lyft, and Walgreens. These rewards can be activated directly in the app. The card now supports tap-to-pay, works internationally with no foreign transaction fees, and includes automatic reloads when the balance gets low.

Venmo is also making bigger moves at checkout. The app is now accepted by major brands including Uber, Instacart, Domino’s, and TikTok Shop. According to CNBC, this retail push is part of a broader plan to become more embedded in everyday spending, beyond just paying friends back.

“We’re transforming from a payments app into a full-service commerce experience for users to spend their balance on everything, in-store and online,” said Diego Scotti, EVP and general manager of PayPal’s Consumer Group.

It’s a timely pivot. While Venmo has over 64 million monthly active users, it’s lagging in key areas. Only a small fraction of users currently have a Venmo debit card, compared to Cash App’s 44% penetration. And the gap in volume is wide—Venmo processed $13 billion in debit card transactions last year, while Cash App racked up $152 billion.

PayPal is clearly trying to close that gap. On a recent earnings call, CEO Alex Chriss said nearly half of U.S.-branded checkout already runs through PayPal’s upgraded experience, and he expects that number to grow as they expand in Europe, CNBC reported.

He also shared that nearly two million people used a PayPal or Venmo debit card for the first time last quarter, marking a 90% year-over-year increase.

While the numbers are moving in the right direction, Venmo still has work to do. Its revenue rose 20% year-over-year, though PayPal didn’t provide a specific figure. Total payment volume hit $75.9 billion, and Pay with Venmo usage jumped 50%. Monthly active users of the debit card grew by roughly 40%.

Chriss has made it clear that better monetizing Venmo—and other past acquisitions like Braintree—is a top priority. Part of that effort includes getting Venmo accepted at more checkouts and building features that make users want to spend their balance rather than just transfer it.

That need to grow has only become more urgent. Venmo and Cash App both lost ground in the peer-to-peer payment space, with Zelle grabbing 66% of market volume, up from 55% in 2019. Venmo now holds just 19%, down from 21% a year earlier.

Still, Venmo is betting on its strong brand, social feel, and loyal user base to stay relevant. With the new cashback rewards, wider retail acceptance, and debit card upgrades, the app is aiming to grab a bigger share of consumer wallets—and reshape how people think about using it.

Venmo was founded in 2009 by Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail as a way to pay each other without using cash or writing checks. Instead of acting as a traditional bank account, Venmo connects to a user’s debit or credit card to send and receive money.

Often compared to fintech apps like Cash App, Venmo is built for personal use and blends the features of a digital wallet with a social feed. Users can transfer money through the mobile app, but both the sender and recipient must be located in the U.S.