Venture Capitalists Discuss the Future of Online Payments at PayPal X Innovate 2009 Conference

A panel of leading venture capitalists (VCs) will discuss breakthrough opportunities in payments available to entrepreneurs at PayPal X Innovate 2009, PayPal’s first developer conference. Moderated by GigaOm blogger Om Malik, the panel will include Brian Ascher from Venrock, Roger Lee from Battery Ventures, Eric O’Brien from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Dana Stalder from Matrix Partners.

"Payments are becoming a game changing technology, with opportunities everywhere you look—and this is not lost on the VC community,” said Osama Bedier, vice president of PayPal Platform and Emerging Technology. "Developer innovation has been stifled until now because it’s so hard to make money. It’s not about technology, it’s about solving fundamental challenges people face when trying to pay or get paid.”

"By opening up its payments platform, PayPal is essentially giving developers the tools to easily monetize their ideas, which has been a long-time challenge,” added Dana Stalder, general partner, Matrix Partners. "This will be of significant importance to the VC community and marks a major shift in payments as we know it.”

PayPal X Innovate 2009 will also feature keynote addresses from eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe, PayPal President Scott Thompson and Vice President of Platform and Emerging Technology Osama Bedier. Publisher and Web 2.0 activist Tim O’Reilly will close out the first day of the conference with the afternoon keynote. Other speakers include innovative developers and partners who will unveil new applications based on PayPal X, PayPal’s open development platform.

The conference will feature dozens of interactive technical sessions covering everything from mobile applications and financial innovation, to creating peer-to-peer applications in developing markets. Attendees will get a preview of the PayPal X 2010 roadmap and have the opportunity to work directly with 200 PayPal engineers on their ideas. Those in attendance will also receive exclusive access to PayPal’s new application programming interfaces (APIs), which will be announced at the conference. The APIs will not be available to non-attendees until 2010.

Details of the general sessions are included below.

Tuesday, November 3

10 a.m. to noon: Introductory keynote with Scott Thompson, Osama Bedier and developers who will demonstrate new applications built on PayPal X. Also, a special address by eBay Inc. CEO, John Donahoe.

5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.: Keynote address by industry luminary Tim O’Reilly.

Wednesday, November 4

8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.: Keynote address by eBay Inc. Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Mark Carges.

9 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.: VC panel discussion on the future of payments with a perspective from those who invest in emerging innovations that can dramatically change how and where people pay and get paid online.

PayPal X Innovate 2009
Opening: Nov. 3, 2009, at 8 a.m. PST
Closing: Nov. 4, 2009, at 5:30 p.m. PST

The Concourse Exhibition Center
635 8th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Media interested in attending should e-mail teampaypalplatform@accesspr.com.

Attendee registration and more information can be found here. PayPal will donate $49 from every ticket sold to support technology at local schools in East Side Union High School District in San Jose. The event can also be followed on Twitter: @PayPal, @PayPalX, #ppxi09, #ChangeHowWePay.

About PayPal

PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online. The service allows members to send money without sharing financial information, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts, credit cards or promotional financing. With more than 75 million active accounts in 190 markets and 19 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce. PayPal is an eBay company and is made up of three leading online payment services: the PayPal global payments platform, the Payflow Gateway and Bill Me Later. More information about the company can be found at https://www.paypal.com.