PayPal is nearing a deal to buy Hyperwallet Systems for about $400 million

By Peter Rudegeair

Updated June 19, 2018 4:17 p.m. ET

PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) is nearing a deal to buy financial-technology company Hyperwallet Systems Inc. for about $400 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

The acquisition, which could be announced as early as Tuesday afternoon, would augment the tools that PayPal offers to businesses that use the San Jose, Calif.-based company to manage and process their online and mobile payments.

Founded in 2000, Hyperwallet helps individuals and small firms receive payments for goods and services that they sell on online marketplaces, including Amazon.com Inc.’s Australian business and Expedia Group Inc.’s vacation-home rental site HomeAway.

Hyperwallet, which counts private-equity firm Primus Capital Partners as a major shareholder, can disburse payments in more than 200 countries through a variety of forms, including debit cards and transfers into bank or PayPal accounts.

PayPal executives have previously identified both deal-making and supporting commerce that happens over online marketplaces as two of the company’s biggest drivers of growth in coming years.

In May, PayPal agreed to buy European payment-terminal maker iZettle AB for roughly $2.2 billion, the largest acquisition in PayPal’s nearly 20-year history. At an investor day shortly after the deal was announced, John Rainey, PayPal’s chief financial officer, laid out plans to spend between $1 billion and $3 billion annually on acquisitions.