PayPal has acquired StackMob, a San Francisco-based firm which helps developers build and manage their mobile applications. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2010, StackMob calls itself a backend-as-a-service firm, offering developers a platform designed to help them build "connected" apps, supporting things such as push notifications, HTML5 hosting, geolocation and social features.
PayPal CTO James Barrese says in a blog post that the StackMob engineering team will help the eBay unit "move even faster in creating, testing and deploying products that aim to transform payments for customers around the world".
Meanwhile, StackMob CEO Ty Amell says: "We believe that our work at PayPal will make it easier for developers to create seamless payment solutions that span online, mobile, and in-store experiences."
PayPal has been working hard to muscle in on the potentially massive mobile commerce market, recently spending $800 million on Braintree. The StackMob deal should help it tackle in-app payments, an area in which president David Marcus recently admitted the firm has struggled in recent years.