PayPal announced on Thursday that it has acquired Iron Pearl, a customer acquisition startup.

Iron Pearl was founded by Stan Chudnovsky and James Currier, who will serve as Vice President of Growth and Growth Advisor, respectively. PayPal says its new growth team will focus on growing its customer base and engaging existing customers more actively, using data to develop marketing approches and product initiatives.

“Iron Pearl has developed groundbreaking tools, methodologies and intellectual property, built on a new understanding of the social and cultural factors that drive the viral spread of products, combined with new approaches to data analysis and predictive modeling,” says PayPal President David Marcus.

“Stan is a visionary in the emerging science of growth and he has a remarkable track record of success as an entrepreneur,” Marcus adds. “James and Stan started and ran Tickle, one of the first social media companies and an early explorer of the possibilities of online viral marketing. After Tickle was acquired by Monster in 2004 for more than $100 million, they founded Wonderhill, a developer of family-friendly social online games that was acquired by Kabam in 2011. Stan was also instrumental in designing growth for companies like GoodReads, Path, BranchOut and many others.”

PayPal saw over five million new members in the last three months of 2012, which this the most the company has had in a singe quarter in the past eight years. PayPal has over 123 million active customers.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.