PayPal’s peer-to-peer payment brand Venmo and bank-backed rival Zelle both laid claim to hefty Q1 growth rates, as customer and transaction values continue to climb.

In its results for the quarter, PayPal said it processed $21 billion worth of transactions through mobile platform Venmo, up 73 per cent year-on-year. As of end-March, the service had 40 million active users (comparable 2018 user numbers were not disclosed).

During the company’s earnings call, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said it expected to process more than $100 billion through the platform this year.

Reporting on the same day Zelle, which is owned by US bank consortium Early Warning Services, said its Q1 payment value increased 54 per cent year-on-year to $39 billion. The number of transactions was up 72 per cent to 147 million.

Zelle’s figures include P2P payments made through its standalone app and those made on apps of its partner banks, which uses the same branding.

In a statement Early Warning Services group president for payment solutions Lou Anne Alexander noted its core partners “achieved tremendous results”. She added the company embarked on a marketing campaign during the quarter to promote the service more widely for a range of everyday use cases.