OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Marqeta, the first global modern card issuing platform, announced today that it is set to issue its 140 millionth card in 2019, ending a calendar year filled with major growth milestones as its open API payments issuing and processing platform takes global flight. The company will issue its 140 millionth card in December of this year, and if consolidated as a single card issuer, would rank as one of the largest 25 issuers of payment cards in the United States.
Marqeta quadrupled its valuation in 2019 to nearly $2B, after it closed its $260 million Series E fundraising round in May, led by Coatue Management. The company doubled its revenue for a fourth consecutive year in 2019, and tripled payments volume through its platform. It added in 175 new positions in 2019, growing its global headcount to nearly 400 people, with a rapidly growing London office serving as a European base alongside its Oakland-headquarters. Marqeta was named to the Forbes Fintech 50 list for the first time, was named Best Fintech Startup at the Fintech Breakthrough Awards, Best Enterprise Technology Company at the 2019 LendIt Fintech Industry Awards and was named the Best Place to Work in Oakland by the Tech Tribune.
The company’s strong growth is fueled by several interlocking trends that should only accelerate in the coming years, with the modern card issuing market expected to grow by $30 trillion in the next decade into an almost $80 trillion opportunity, according to research by Edgar, Dunn & Company commissioned by Marqeta.
- Customer growth: Marqeta continues to be a go to choice for the world’s most innovative companies, who are looking to instantly issue cards and process payments with more control and flexibility. It continued to extend its dominance in the on-demand delivery vertical, launching a new card program with Postmates. Its platform continues to be relied on by digital banks, adding new European banking innovators Lydia, Capital on Tap, YAPEAL and Twisto to its customer list. It added in several new marquee clients in its rapidly growing enterprise payments vertical, with Expensify and Ramp Financial launching new products on the Marqeta platform. The company also continues to help its existing customers grow and scale quickly. After going live with Marqeta in early 2019, ConnexPay was able to scale its spend through the Marqeta platform 4x between April and October.
- Product growth: Marqeta launched several new products in 2019. It launched Marqeta Reserve Financing, a financing option that allows customers to seamlessly fund their reserve accounts and takes away one of the major pain points of launching debit and prepaid cards. It launched a digital banking solution uniquely tailored to its European banking clients. It launched Push to Card, reinventing the lender-borrower relationship, by allowing funds to be loaded through Marqeta onto a virtual card or tokenized into a digital wallet in moments. It also revolutionized its developer interface this year, launching a new One Sandbox Project to allow for greater experimentation and iteration through its site and create more frictionless scaling into production as well as revamping its API documentation sites and knowledge base.
- Global growth: Through a cutting edge new partnership with Visa, Marqeta is now a certified processor in 10 markets across Asia Pacific, a footprint three times larger than any other issuer in the region where most issuers are only active in three countries, combining its technology with Visa’s global reputation to help customers launch with incredible speed in the fastest growing digital payments markets in the world. Its UK office, opened in the second half of 2018, has grown into an operation of close to 20 people, closing 12 deals in 2019.
“2019 has been a year of unprecedented growth at Marqeta. The customers using our modern card issuing platform to support their business continue to grow from strength to strength, new innovators and disruptors continue to choose Marqeta to build their business on and we put ourselves in position to benefit hugely from the rapid digitization of payments globally,” said Jason Gardner, Founder and CEO of Marqeta. “To see this core strength reflected by strong topline metrics and industry recognition is exciting, but we’re confident that 2019 is just one step of many to come as we turn Marqeta into a generational piece of technology that will help transform the payments industry for years to come.”
About Marqeta
Marqeta is the first global modern card issuing platform, providing the most advanced infrastructure and tools for building highly configurable payment cards. With its open API, the Marqeta platform is designed for businesses who want a simple and tailored way of managing payment programs so that they can create world-class experiences and power new modes of commerce. Marqeta is headquartered in Oakland, California. For more information, visit www.marqeta.com, Twitter and LinkedIn.
