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PayPal<\/a>, the giant digital payments company that was spun off from eBay last year<\/a>, has had an up-and-down<\/a> relationship with the business of crowdfunding over the years, but there are some indications that this could\u00a0change. We\u2019ve been hearing\u00a0that PayPal was interested in buying\u00a0GoFundMe<\/a> \u2014 the crowdfunding site that lets people raise money for both serious causes and lighter life events \u2014 potentially for a price above $1 billion.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear how far\u00a0conversations proceeded\u00a0between the two, or if they are still active.<\/p>\n Both GoFundMe and\u00a0PayPal said their companies do not comment on rumor or speculation; several investors and others we contacted also declined to comment. We believe\u00a0conversations took place\u00a0among a limited group of senior people.<\/p>\n Co-founded by\u00a0Andrew Ballester and\u00a0Brad Damphousse in 2008 in San Diego,\u00a0GoFundMe has been on a growth tear. In 2015, the\u00a0startup \u2014 which sits alongside others like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Tilt, all covering different kinds\u00a0of crowdfunding \u2014 raised what appears to be its only significant external funding: an undisclosed amount of money<\/a> from a group of investors led by\u00a0Accel and Technology Crossover Ventures (also including Iconiq Capital, Greylock and Meritech). A month later,\u00a0it was revealed that Stripes invested<\/a> in it, too.<\/p>\n As part of that transaction, the investors took a majority stake in the business, buying out the two founders in the process; installing an Accel venture partner, Rob Solomon, as CEO; and valuing the business at around $600 million. At the time, GoFundMe\u00a0was estimated to be processing\u00a0$100 million per month in funding for\u00a0the different campaigns\u00a0using its platform, growing 300 percent year-over-year.<\/p>\n For PayPal, a closer relationship or acquisition of a crowdfunding site would be an interesting \u2014 if\u00a0surprising \u2014 turn of events.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, PayPal stopped offering Purchase Protection<\/a> for payments made on crowdfunding platforms. The company has had a rocky relationship with the crowdfunding community, with\u00a0some notable cases<\/a> of freezing accounts. One\u00a0of the problems for PayPal is risk management, and specifically whether it would be liable for\u00a0chargebacks \u2014 that is, if a person contributing money decided that he\/she\u00a0wanted a refund.<\/p>\n At GoFundMe, PayPal was removed as a payment option altogether some time ago, replaced by a combination of Stripe and WePay<\/a>. The reason given by GoFundMe was that these two\u00a0allowed people to pay directly with debit or credit cards on a campaign page, and gave GoFundMe more control over the payment experience.<\/p>\n Earlier this month,\u00a0GoFundMe took the issue of purchase protection into its own hands: it\u00a0launched its own form of limited guarantee <\/a>for donors and fundraisers, who respectively can claim up to $1,000 and $25,000 in the event of a campaign gone wrong. The guarantee for now is only applicable in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n However,\u00a0there\u00a0are reasons why PayPal might\u00a0be interested in giving\u00a0crowdfunding another chance, and perhaps getting involved in it in a deeper and more serious way.<\/p>\n GoFundMe, which focuses on funding causes and events, may have\u00a0had its share of controversy<\/a>, but it\u2019s also been a strong platform for bringing out generosity and goodwill. It\u2019s also been very popular:\u00a0one source described it as\u00a0\u201cprinting money\u201d.<\/p>\n A\u00a0potential buyer could continue\u00a0to operate GoFundMe as a separate entity. Or more strategically, the company would be a strong complement to PayPal\u2019s existing business, which includes its ongoing\u00a0relationship providing payments services to eBay, physical world point of sale, payments in third party apps through Braintree and P2P payments.<\/p>\n You probably have already seen plenty of campaigns for GoFundMe in your Facebook News Feed, some inspiring<\/a>, maybe a few\u00a0bizarre and in bad taste<\/a>.\u00a0Altogether, the\u00a0company said in May that it has seen 25 million donors<\/a> and has raised around $2 billion total.<\/p>\n