Skip to main content

American Express to invest $100M in digital commerce startups

american-express
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Looking to expand its payment realm beyond the confines of the lowly credit card, American Express announced today that it plans to invest $100 million in startups and other companies that deal in digital commerce. The investment plan will take place over the next few years.

“American Express is a 162 year old company that has continuously reinvented itself,” said Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth, American Express. “As we enter the next chapter in our history, we recognize the need to work with emerging technology companies to inspire change, encourage innovation, and ultimately deliver the best products and services to our customers.”

Recommended Videos

The American Express digital payment initiative will be run out of a newly established office in Silicon Valley. The fund will be run by Harshul Sanghi, the company’s recently appointed vice president of its Enterprise Growth Group. Prior to his move to American Express in September, Sanghi ran Motorola Mobility Ventures. At American Express, he has been in charge of overseeing the company’s Serve online payment service, which is an alternative to PayPal.

“The payments industry is undergoing a fundamental change as the very nature of commerce is redefined,” said Mr. Sanghi in a statement. “We believe our global network of businesses and consumers, international employee base, world-class customer service and data analytics will provide a significant advantage to potential portfolio companies.”

It should come as no surprise that traditional payment companies like American Express are getting into digital commerce. The industry is quickly changing, with companies like Square and Facebook offering alternatives to the long-held status quo. It would seem American Express is doing what it can to stay head of the curve.

Andrew Couts
Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…
Topics
The robot takeover comes another step closer — at Amazon
An Amazon robot working inside one of the company's warehouses.

Amazon is close to having more robots operating inside its warehouses than humans after the e-commerce giant announced this week that it now has more than a million robots working at its facilities around the world.

Over the years, Amazon has spent billions of dollars on the development and deployment of warehouse-based robots, which handle an array of tasks once performed by human workers.

Read more
This Lenovo ThinkPad laptop is over $1,400 off — hurry while stocks last!
The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 Intel laptop on a white background.

Now's an excellent time to take advantage of laptop deals from Lenovo, which has slashed the prices of a wide range of devices for its Black Friday in July sale. Lenovo's ThinkPad laptops are up to 45% off, and here's one of the most interesting offers available with such a discount — the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 at $1,440 off its estimated value of $3,199, so you'll only have to pay $1,759. That's an excellent price for this fantastic productivity tool, but you're going to have to push forward with your purchase as soon as possible because stocks may run out at any moment.

BUY NOW

Read more
Early Prime Day deal: Samsung’s 27-inch Odyssey G3 at its annual low price
Samsung Odyssey G3 gaming monitor on desk with keyboard and headset.

If you're ready to upgrade your monitor, this Samsung deal over at Amazon just might be your best bet. The 27-inch version of Samsung's Odyssey G3 is $130 right now, a full $100 off its regular $230 price and its lowest price of the year. It's a part of early Prime Day deals and a good sampling of what we can expect for the shopping holiday, which officially lands on July 8th. Tap the button below to see it for yourself or keep reading to see why we like this deal and why this should be your next monitor.

Buy Now

Read more