PayPal has shut down its corporate venture arm, PayPal Ventures, after a decade of investing in fintech and crypto startups. The move follows CEO Alex Chriss’s exit and the appointment of Enrique Lores, who is trimming the company’s portfolio. The venture unit had backed more than 80 firms, including Talos Global, Plaid, and Anchorage Digital.

PayPal Ventures raised $850 million across three funds, a figure that matched its ambition to stay at the forefront of emerging financial services. Closing the arm signals a strategic shift toward core technology and artificial intelligence, as Enrique Lores recently said the company must become a technology company again. Investors will now watch how the firm reallocates these resources.

The decision follows PayPal’s $30 million settlement with the Justice Department over a 2020 minority‑owned business investment program. The company also faces a lawsuit from an Asian investor claiming exclusion from the same program. Lores plans secondary sales of venture holdings and hired Jefferies to manage the process, signaling a broader divestiture push.

By shutting down its venture arm, PayPal risks losing early insight into startups that could reshape payments and banking. Competitors with active venture programs may capture talent and technology that now falls outside PayPal’s radar. The company must now prove its technology‑first strategy can compensate for the loss of that strategic scouting network.