PayPal has announced plans to shut down its venture capital arm, just months after Enrique Lores’s appointment as company CEO.
Last year, the company had a total of 10 partners and has since reduced that number to two. Additionally, PayPal no longer lists the venture unit’s employees on its website.
Earlier in June, Ashish Aggarwal and Alexandros Bottenbruch, co-leads for PayPal’s fintech investments across EMEA left their roles as partners at PayPal Ventures.
Both executives were the only two remaining partners based out of the company’s London office, with the rest positioned in the US.
“As part of our continued efforts to sharpen our focus, we are exploring strategic options for our corporate venture capital arm, PayPal Ventures,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “We don’t have additional details to share at this time.”
They also added that the company is considering selling some of its positions on the secondary market and has hired the investment bank Jefferies to help with potential transactions.