Venmo, which was previously working with an intermediary processing partner to handle bank transfers, is now working directly with U.S. banks. The net result for app users is the ability to cash out of Venmo and receive funds overnight.
The update, quietly announced Monday, is significant; Venmo is now faster than PayPal when it comes to transferring funds to bank accounts in the U.S. Plus, speedy money transfers could help the young startup win over users from its more formidable competitors and hook newbies on the service.
“The result is that you never have to worry about sending money to a friend who is new to Venmo,” CEO Andre w Kortina tells Mashable. “If you’re at dinner and send a friend 50 bucks, she can sign up, instantly verify her account, request a cash out, and the money will show up in her checking account tomorrow — that’s way faster than writing/cashing a check or using PayPal.”
The service update, which brings with it a big “Cash Out” button in the iPhone and Android apps, represents the startup’s desire to meet user demands. “The biggest complaint we heard from users was that this process was too slow,” Kortina says.
Now that users can verify their bank accounts instantly and cash out from Venmo to receive money overnight, Kortina believes the startup will be able to win more PayPal users over to Venmo.
“The reason we’re winning away ex-PayPal users is because we are working to build something better. That means building a service that’s more social and easily accessible on your m obile device. Now,...
