Payments are a key building block for any fintech-orientated business model. Let’s look at payment giants Venmo and Cash App to get a sense of the market opportunity. What they have in common are peer-to-peer payments, business payments, debit cards, and the ability to buy/sell crypto in-app.

Venmo started out in 2009 as a way to pay each other without having to exchange cash or write a cheque. The social element of Venmo remains one of the app’s core features. Currently, Venmo is a subsidiary of PayPal.

In 2013, Square Cash was launched as a way to pay people via email without the multiple steps and delays associated with online payments at the time. The service was later expanded to include Android and iOS apps, as well as mobile number functionality, and in 2015 it was made available for businesses in the United States.

In 2021 Venmo and Cash App revenue came in at $850 million and $12.3 billion respectively. Although Venmo has more users than Cash App, 70 million compared to 44 million, it is interesting to see Cash App significantly outperforming Venmo on the revenue front.

It is interesting to note that 74% of Cash App’s revenue is reported to come from bitcoin purchases in 2021. Cash App generated $12.3 billion in revenue in 2021, 81% of that came from Bitcoin. 

In 2019 Cash App made $30 annualized revenue per user.

It is clear that a payments-orientated fintech app like Cash App or Venmo can generate between $20 to $40 revenue per year.

Fintechs tend to rely on economies of scale. A follow up question would be whether it is viable for smaller fintechs or marketplaces to create custom branded payment solutions for their ecosystems.

Source: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/venmo-statistics/

Source: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/cash-app-statistics/