J.P. Morgan Buys Payment Startup WePay as It Kicks Off Fintech Acquisitions

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire WePay Inc., a San Francisco startup that processes credit card Payments Payments One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl Read this Term online on platforms such as GoFundMe or CrowdRise, for an undisclosed amount.

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The deal marks the first sizable acquisition in J.P. Morgan's recently announced investment plan, in which the banking giant has committed to expanding in the thriving fintech sector.

According to the WSJ, the price it heard from a person familiar with the matter is north of the $220 million valuation that the payment provider picked up in a 2015 fundraising.

The acquisition gives WePay access to J.P. Morgan's network of more than 4 million small-business customers.

Founded in 2008, WePay originally started as a payments processor to compete against the likes of FirstData and Global Payments, as well as more established providers like PayPal and Stripe. However, the company’s co-founders Bill Clerico and Rich Aberman decided to shut down that portion of the business in 2013 to focus on Crowdfunding Crowdfunding Crowdfunding is defined as funding of a project via raising smaller denominations of money across a large body of number of people.New businesses that need access to more capital may also conduct crowdfunding. Generally, crowdfunding is performed through an online community, social media, or crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter, GoFundMe, and RocketHub. Depending upon which jurisdiction an investor resides within will dictate the sort of restrictions that are applied to the crowdfunding pro Crowdfunding is defined as funding of a project via raising smaller denominations of money across a large body of number of people.New businesses that need access to more capital may also conduct crowdfunding. Generally, crowdfunding is performed through an online community, social media, or crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter, GoFundMe, and RocketHub. Depending upon which jurisdiction an investor resides within will dictate the sort of restrictions that are applied to the crowdfunding pro Read this Term.

WePay has to date raised decent funding from a long list of investors that includes PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and Maynard Webb, the ex-eBay executive who is now chairman of Yahoo and on the board of Visa.