Why Square (SQ) Is Buying Verse

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 17, 2020
  • Financial services company Square Inc (NYSE: SQ) announced that it is buying Verse, which is a Spanish peer-to-peer payments app

Financial services company Square Inc (NYSE: SQ) announced that it is buying Verse, which is a Spanish peer-to-peer payments app. Verse enables users to transfer money for free. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.

The Verse app also has a groups feature, which makes it easier for users to split their expenses like rent, cab rides, and restaurant bills. Plus Verse also has a debit card.

Going forward, the Verse team will join Square’s Cash App business. Square’s Cash App service also enables users to transfer money to each other. Verse launched in 2015 and it raised over $35 million in funding since then, according to Crunchbase. Some of Verse’s investors include Spark Capital, Greycroft, VAS Ventures, Plug and Play, Firestartr, Expon Capital, Nikesh Arora, Martin Varsavsky, David Stern, Charlie Songhurst, and Alan Patricof.

This acquisition will give Square more market share in Europe. Square reported around 24 million monthly active customers, mostly in the US and the UK as of the end of 2019.

“We were drawn to Verse’s strong team, and they share a similar approach to us around inventing and learning to better serve customers,” said Square in a statement. “At this point, our main priority is enabling Verse to continue their successful growth in Europe. Verse will continue to operate as an independent business, working out of their offices with no immediate changes to their existing products, customers, or business operations.”