Marqeta

“powering payments innovation”

Founded: 2010 in California, USA Category: Payments Primary office: Oakland, California (USA) Core technical team: Oakland, California (USA) Status: Private Employees: 275 Amount raised: $378 (7 rounds – May 2019)

OVERVIEW Marqeta, Inc. provides prepaid card solutions for merchants and consumers. The company: allows consumers to select merchant offers and load money to their Marqeta cards, a reloadable debit card helps third parties like square, Affirm, DoorDash, Kabbage and Instacart build and offer card services to their customers provides infrastructure and tools for developers building highly configurable payment cards   PERFORMANCE METRICS Valuation – $1.9 billion (2019) Revenue – $150 million (2018) Market Cap – 734.9 million (June 2019) PPS – $3,89 (March 2019)   ACHIEVEMENTS Revenue: $150 million in 2018 – expects its revenue to double in 2019, for the fourth consecutive year Marqeta is the world’s first fully documented open API issuer processor platform 2019: named “Best Fintech Startup” at the 2019 Fin Tech Breakthrough Awards 2019: named Top Enterprise Technology Company” at the 2019 LendIt Fintech Industry Awards April 2016: recognized as a 2016 Bay Area Best Place to Work Bolstered its executive team: adding Chief People Officer Barbie Brewere (formally Netflix and Gitlab), Chief Legal Officer Seth Weissman (formerly of Solar City), Senior VP of Operations Fiona Taylor (formerly of Tesla) Expanded its Oakland office, and opened its London office in 2018 Some of the most well-known new entrants in finance, such as: Square Inc, the payment company founded by Twitter Inc CEO Jack Dorsey Affirm, the lending startup led by PayPal Holdings In co-founder Max Levchin, Alipay, the payment business spun out of China-based technology company Alibaba Group DoorDash, Instacart, food and grocery delivery companies Holding Kabbage, small business delivery lender

Sells

Solutions

• Marqeta enables companies to build, issue and deploy innovative payment, finance and commerce solutions with enormous control over what, where, and how purchases are authorized
• Marqeta provides payment platform intended to offer a fully documented and open API issuer payment processor
• Marqeta’s open API issuer payment processor platform includes a set of controls and configurations designed to meet the needs of on demand service companies, alternative lenders, as well as those looking for payouts for workers, flexible expense management and scalable, secure virtual card transactions
• Marqueta enables developers to get a simplified way of managing payment programs

Channels

• Moving money channels – omni channels including physical, virtual, and tokenized payments
• Healthy clients who are future winners, latched on doing business with large markets
• Targeted outreach through conferences and events
• Podcasts through company website
• A platform with a program dashboard that allow businesses to develop, iterate and launch the payment solutions they need – at unprecedented speed
• Newscast via company website
• Provide technical support, developer support, and other types of assistance via website
• Market via social media sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter

Competencies

• Operates in 2 countries; Oakland, USA and London, UK
• Website Tech Stack: Marqeta is actively using 47 technologies for its website, including Viewport Meta, IPhone / Mobile compatible, and SSL by default
• Company Tech Stack: Marqeta uses 24 technology products and services including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and G Suite
• World-class talent, top-tier customer service, the tremendous value and trust that is built in the payment space
• The ability to transform the card issuance service and global payments infrastructure

Resources

Assertions That Best Describe What the Company Did to Scale Early, Rapidly & Securely

1. Increase value by using a compelling image of the desired future company to convince others to provide the funding and resources the company requires
2. Increase profitability by learning to make well-reasoned decisions or conclusions about how to scale from own experience and others
3. Define and implement the plan to scale with the effort, skills, and resilience to increase profitability
4. Develop and sell products that address a problem, job to be done or a need that is shared by a large and growing number of individuals and organizations in various regions to increase sales
5. Increase market share by applying digital technology to brand, market, sell, and service customers more cost-effectively than competitors
6. Increase sales by adapting products and services to each market
7. Enter a new market by partnering with or purchasing local firms to increase sales
8. Increase sales by enabling locals to succeed because of new company
9. Increase demand by using scientific and technological advances to develop innovative products and services
10. Increase demand by enabling users to participate in product and service development
11. Increase profitability by applying processes that make products and services easier to understand, produce and deliver
12. Increase the company’s value by continuously seeking and receiving funding to support the company’s plan to scale and improve its image in the marketplace

References

• Techcrunch. 2019. Payment card startup Marqeta confirms $260M round at close to $2B valuation. https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/21/payment-card-startup-marqeta-confirms-260m-round-at-close-to-2b-valuation/
• PitchBook. 2019. Marqeta company profile. https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/54330-13
• Kauflin, Jeff. 2019. It Took Three Tries, But This Entrepreneur Transformed His Struggling Startup Into A $2 Billion Unicorn. Forbes daily cover, April 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2019/03/26/it-took-three-tries-but-this-entrepreneur-transformed-his-struggling-startup-into-a-2b-unicorn/#6ae3c485706d
• Global Business Outlook, 2019. Marqueta, a Goldman-backed fintech startup launches in Europe. https://www.globalbusinessoutlook.com/marqueta-a-goldman-backed-fintech-startup-launches-in-europe/
• Crowdfund Insider. 2019. Fintech Unicorn: Marqeta Raises $260 Million at a $2 Billion Valuation. https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2019/05/147515-fintech-unicorn-marqeta-raises-260-million-at-a-2-billion-valuation/
• BusinessWire. 2019. Oakland Fintech Unicorn Marqeta Creates 175 New Jobs in 2019, as Its Modern Card Issuing Vision Takes Global Flight. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190828005177/en/Oakland-Fintech-Unicorn-Marqeta-Creates-175-New
• Wilhelm Alex. 2019. Meet $3B In Valuation From Two Companies You Haven’t Heard Of. Crunchbase news, May 2019. https://news.crunchbase.com/news/meet-3b-in-valuation-from-two-companies-you-havent-heard-of/
• Primeunicorn Index. 2019. Marqeta, Inc. https://www.vcexperts.com/prime_unicorn_companies/aee346d2-c0d6-48b1-b71a-38abbbf005e8.pdf

Contributors

• Renuka Gamage