Who Owns PayPal?

PayPal has no owner. PayPal Holdings, Inc. is listed on NASDAQ with no controlling shareholder and a single class of stock. It has not been owned by eBay since 2015. In Britain your account is now held with PayPal UK Ltd (14741686), a company incorporated in 2023 and authorised by the FCA — UK customers were moved to it from PayPal’s Luxembourg entity on 1 November 2023. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns Paypal?

PayPal Holdings, Inc. is a public company registered in Delaware, and no shareholder controls it. Its largest holders are index managers, holding for the investors in their funds.

The founders are long gone as owners. Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and the others associated with PayPal’s origins sold their shares when eBay bought the company in 2002; none of them has held a controlling stake for more than twenty years, and the persistent claim that Musk owns PayPal is simply wrong.

Legal entity and parent group

The British entity is PAYPAL UK LTD (14741686), incorporated 20 March 2023 and registered at 5 Fleet Place, London. Its person with significant control is PayPal Holdings, Inc. (Delaware, number 5684361), holding 75% or more of shares and voting rights, notified 20 March 2023.

Above PayPal Holdings there is nothing. It is the ultimate parent.

The 2023 incorporation date is the point. Before then, UK accounts were held with PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. in Luxembourg, which served the UK after Brexit under the FCA’s temporary permissions regime. That regime was ending, so PayPal built a UK company and moved UK users into it.

Regulatory status and authorised firm

PayPal UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as an electronic money institution under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, and separately for regulated consumer credit activities.

An electronic money institution is not a bank, and the difference matters. Money held in a PayPal balance is not a bank deposit and is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Instead, EMIs must safeguard customer funds — holding them separately from the firm’s own money, so that if the firm fails the safeguarded pool is used to repay customers ahead of other creditors. That is meaningful protection, but it is not the FSCS deposit guarantee that applies to a bank account, which has covered £120,000 per person per firm since 1 December 2025.

Anyone checking should look up PayPal UK Ltd on the FCA’s Financial Services Register, which is the authoritative record of what a firm is permitted to do.

Shareholders and controlling interests

PayPal Holdings has a single class of common stock, so votes track shares. The largest holders are Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street at mid-single-digit percentages, none of which is control.

Activist investors have taken positions from time to time and pressed for changes in strategy and management, which is influence exercised through public argument and board pressure rather than through ownership of a controlling stake.

Every percentage is a snapshot from a disclosure date and drifts with fund flows.

Group companies and brands

PayPal owns Venmo, Braintree, Xoom, Honey and Zettle, the card reader business it bought as iZettle in 2018.

It does not own eBay, and eBay does not own it. eBay bought PayPal in 2002 and spun it off as a separate listed company in July 2015; the two have been independent for over a decade, and eBay has since moved most of its own payments to other providers.

PayPal has no connection to Stripe, Klarna, Revolut or Wise, all of which are separately owned.

Sources and verification

The UK company number, its 20 March 2023 incorporation, and the PSC entry naming PayPal Holdings, Inc. with its Delaware number are from the Companies House register.

Regulatory permissions, the firm reference numbers and the safeguarding position should be checked on the FCA Financial Services Register, which is authoritative for who is authorised and for what — Companies House says nothing about regulation. PayPal Holdings’ shareholders are disclosed in US securities filings. The 1 November 2023 migration date comes from PayPal’s own published customer notices. Companies House does not verify most filed information.