Braintree overhauls SDK, adds PayPal integration

Braintree was acquired by PayPal for $800 million last year

It has been over nine months since payments platform Braintree was acquired by PayPal for $800 million. At the time, PayPal talked up how it was going to user its new acquisition to strengthen its position in mobile. And, yet, in the months since there has been no integration between the two companies. 

Now, finally, PayPal is putting Braintree to good use.

Braintree announced on Wednesday that it has released a new version of its software development kit (SDK). Except that is has not simply updated its existing product: the company has undergone a complete rebuilding, in order to make simpler to ingrate, and to also includes the full integration of PayPal into the system.

A big part of the reason for the overhaul was the shift toward mobile, the company explained in a blog post.

"The last few years have been exciting for payments as we’ve seen a shift to mobile and a renewed focus on driving conversion. The shift opened up a new set of opportunities for us. It became clear we needed to rethink how developers integrated with us as payments continue to change rapidly," Braintree wrote. "We went back to the drawing board and designed a system that is simple to integrate and easy to extend. "

In order to fully show-off how new the product is, in fact, the company has decided to call it "v.zero."

Included in v.zero is a new Drop-in user interface form that includes auto-detection of card brands, client-side validation of the primary account number and expiration date, and Control Panel toggling of AVS and CVV checks.

Previously, developers had to build their own UIs, but many asked BrainTree to pre-build one for them to make it easier to simply drop it in and customize to shorten and simplify the process. The new UI is, of course, completely optional. 

With the Drop-In UI, developers can maintain full control while having their payments and be up and running within 15 minutes, BrainTree CEO Bill Ready wrote in a blog post. 

But, more important is the integration of PayPal, which BrainTree says that it has been experimenting with for months, with beta partners that included GitHub, Jane, Chargify and ParkWhiz. 

The company says it has been asked when it would finally allow developers to add PayPal as a payment method ever since it was acquired. 

"Using our new SDKs for the web (Javascript) or mobile (iOS & Android) the integration to accept PayPal is as simple as adding some code to position the PayPal button in your checkout flow and then sending the resulting token from your server to Braintree to create the transaction. We take care of serving the button and all of the PayPal interaction," said Braintree.

Founded in 2007, the San Francisco-based Braintree is an e-commerce and m-commerce platform that allows for single click payments. It provides merchants with a secure payment gateway, merchant account, recurring billing and credit card storage. 

It works by allowing someone who uses a credit card on an app, to then store the information from that card and allow the user to automatically use the same card on another app, without having to re-enter the information. 

In July last year, Braintree announced that it was processing over $10 billion annually from over 4,000 merchants, and now that number has been revised up to $12 billion. Braintree operates internationally, and merchants in 40 countries in North America, Europe and Australia can accept payments in over 130 currencies.

Braintree had raised a total of $70 million in two rounds: a $35 million Series A from Accel Partners in June 2011, and a $35 million Series B from Accel Partners and NEA in October 2012.

(Image source: developers.braintreepayments.com)