Who owns PayPal?
PayPal is owned by PayPal Holdings, Inc. (the United States, NASDAQ: PYPL).[1]
Evidence: PayPal Holdings, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-02-03, SEC EDGAR, 3 February 2026. Verified from filings; last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- PayPal Holdings, Inc. verified
- Owner HQ
- 🇺🇸 United States, San Jose, California
- Origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Founded
- 1998
- Category
- Internet & digital › Digital services › Payments
- Parent ticker
- NASDAQ: PYPL
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
About PayPal
PayPal lets people pay online without handing card details to the seller, which is what made trade between strangers on eBay practical. It processes payments in more than two hundred markets, and its buyer protection scheme is a large part of why shoppers trust unfamiliar sites.
Ownership timeline of PayPal
Where PayPal sits in PayPal
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full PayPal ownership tree →
See the full PayPal brand portfolio (4) →
Other brands owned by PayPal
PayPal controls 4 brands on Brandtree, 4 of them in internet & digital.
Also in internet & digital
Other brands in payments, and who owns them
PayPal has more brands in payments on Brandtree than any other owner: 4 of 36.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| GoPay | GoTo | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
| Kaspi Alaqan | Kaspi.kz | 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan |
| Afterpay | Block | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Rakuten Card | Rakuten | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| AzamPay | Bakhresa | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
| GrabPay | Grab | 🇸🇬 Singapore |
| Mercado Crédito | MercadoLibre | 🇺🇾 Uruguay |
| Uzum Bank | Uzum | 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan |
About the owner: PayPal
PayPal is a publicly listed company headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, founded in 1998. Brandtree records 4 brands under its control, and it is listed as NASDAQ: PYPL.
PayPal grew out of a 2000 merger between Confinity and Elon Musk's X.com, was bought by eBay in 2002, and was spun back out as a separate company in 2015. Its early employees went on to found or fund a striking share of the companies that followed, a group the press calls the PayPal Mafia.
🇺🇸 PayPal and other American brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,549 brands that began in the United States. 478 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; PayPal is not one of them.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of PayPal?
The parent company of PayPal is PayPal Holdings, Inc., a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Is PayPal American?
Yes. PayPal originated in the United States in 1998 and its owner, PayPal Holdings, Inc., is also headquartered in the United States.
Is PayPal still owned by PayPal Holdings, Inc.?
Yes. As of 16 September 2026, PayPal is still owned by PayPal Holdings, Inc. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] PayPal Holdings, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-02-03 — SEC EDGAR, SEC Form 10-K, published 3 February 2026; retrieved 16 September 2026.
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