Marqeta, Inc. (Marqeta) creates digital payment technology for innovation leaders. The company's modern card issuing platform empowers its customers to create customized and innovative payment card programs, giving them the configurability and flexibility to build better payment experiences.
The company provides all of its customers issuer processor services and for most of its customers it also acts as a card program manager. The company primarily earns revenue from processing card transaction...
Marqeta, Inc. (Marqeta) creates digital payment technology for innovation leaders. The company's modern card issuing platform empowers its customers to create customized and innovative payment card programs, giving them the configurability and flexibility to build better payment experiences.
The company provides all of its customers issuer processor services and for most of its customers it also acts as a card program manager. The company primarily earns revenue from processing card transactions for its customers.
Marqeta’s modern platform empowers the company’s customers to create customized and innovative payment card programs, giving them configurability and flexibility. The company’s platform encompasses debit, prepaid, and credit programs, and provides banking and money movement, risk management, and rewards products. The company delivers a scaled solution to its customers to maximize the benefit of their card programs while also providing the tech layer that bridges the bank and the customer. Marqeta’s open APIs provide instant access to a highly scalable, cloud-based payment infrastructure that enables customers to embed the payments experience into apps or websites for a personalized user experience. Customers can launch and manage their own card programs, issue cards, and authorize and settle payment transactions quickly using the company’s platform.
The company also delivers robust card program management, allowing its customers to embed Marqeta in their offering without having to build certain complex elements or customer support services. The company’s customers can focus on their areas of expertise, with more control over their card programs, while it manages the complexity of running the card programs with Issuing Banks and Card Networks.
The Payments Ecosystem
With every tap, swipe, or payment, a lot happens behind the scenes. The payments ecosystem of Issuing Banks, Acquiring Banks, Acquirer Processors, Issuer Processors, and Card Networks facilitates the exchange of information and funds and underpins global payment card purchase transactions.
Acquirer Processors connect Acquiring Banks and merchants to the Card Networks, to facilitate the flow of card payment information to an Issuing Bank.
Acquiring Banks are the financial institutions that merchants use to hold funds and manage their business. Acquiring Banks may work with an Acquirer Processor to provide access to the Card Networks.
Card Networks provide the infrastructure for settlement and card payment information that flows between an Issuer Processor and an Acquirer Processor.
Issuer Processors provide a technology platform, ledger, and infrastructure to support a card issuer and connects with a Card Network to facilitate payment transactions.
Issuing Banks are the financial institution that issue a payment card (debit, prepaid, or credit) either on its own behalf or on behalf of a business.
Platform and Products
Marqeta provides a single, global, cloud-based, open API platform for modern card issuing and transaction processing. Marqeta’s modern platform enables customers to build and rapidly scale their card programs with extensive control and configurability, and with high standards of reliability and security. The company’s platform is designed to reduce complexity for customers, enabling a full spectrum of consumer and commercial card issuing and transaction processing services in a single solution. The company’s overlay robust program management expertise to help its customers design a customer-centric card program without requiring expertise in all of the nuances of managing a program themselves.
A key aspect of its modern platform is that the company’s debit, prepaid, and credit offerings are all available in a combined offering, enabling customers to offer multiple products through Marqeta’s platform. For example, a retail company could use Marqeta to create a debit program to offer wage solutions to its hourly workers, a consumer credit program to its most loyal shoppers, and a commercial credit program to key suppliers to meet its working capital needs. These programs can all exist on Marqeta’s single, global, modern platform.
The company’s platform has a number of key attributes, including:
Control: Dynamic spend controls and Just-in-Time Funding (JIT Funding) provide customers with control over the payments flow.
Scale: Global platform built on a cloud-native infrastructure and a suite of APIs to support the company’s customers worldwide with a build-once, deploy-anywhere model.
Configurable: Highly configurable capabilities empower the company’s customers to build native solutions tailored to their customer needs.
Trust: The company complies with applicable obligations under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and provides a trusted environment for card issuing and payment processing with security, transparency, and real-time information.
Card Issuing
The company’s customers can issue debit, prepaid, and credit cards, including instant provision of a tokenized card to a digital wallet.
Debit: Customers can link card products to a primary bank account for their users to fund and spend from.
Prepaid: Customers can create single- or multi-use custom card experiences with dynamic spend controls and fund transactions in real time based upon business criteria.
Credit: Customers can create customized consumer and commercial credit programs with innovative rewards structures, leveraging pre-integrated partners for underwriting, mobile app design, and customer service.
Virtual: Customers can instantly issue one-time or multi-use branded payment cards that are ready to use immediately and enable faster funds disbursement with easier tracking of funds by unique virtual card numbers.
Physical: Customers can customize the look and feel, graphics, and messaging of physical cards to reinforce their brand. Physical cards can be magstripe, EMV-chip, and/or tap-to-pay enabled.
Tokenization & Digital Wallets: Customers can instantly issue branded payment cards that are ready to use immediately in app or in mobile wallets, which provides for continuity if the physical cards are lost or stolen.
Processing
Marqeta enables the company’s customers to deliver innovative card experiences with enhanced control over transaction processing through dynamic spend controls and real-time decisioning via its JIT Funding feature.
Dynamic Spend Control: Dynamic spend controls create unique card experiences while reducing customer exposure to risk by limiting where users can transact and configuring exact spend limits. Customers can tailor cards with flexibility in where, when, and how much the card can be used. Customers can also check real-time data and events to dynamically change the card experience as needed.
JIT Funding: Marqeta’s JIT Funding feature enables customer cards to maintain a zero-amount balance until the card is used and approved. Upon approval, Marqeta automatically moves funds from an identified funding source into the appropriate account.
Digital Banking
Marqeta for Banking provides the company’s customers with access to a suite of bank account and money movement features offered through its Issuing Bank partners, including demand deposit accounts, direct deposit with early pay, ACH, cash loads, and fee-free ATMs, bill pay, and instant funding capabilities. These services enable customers to drive additional engagement and spend by making it easy for their users to fund accounts and manage money.
RiskControl
With Marqeta’s RiskControl product, certain risk and compliance concerns are mitigated while reducing friction across the cardholder lifecycle.
Real-Time Decisioning: Customers can mitigate fraud using Marqeta’s Real-Time Decisioning solution, which provides fine-tuned control over card transactions.
Customer Identification Program: Customers can verify the identity of cardholder applicants.
3D Secure: Customers can authenticate cardholders and authorize online transactions.
Disputes Management: Customers can manage disputes and chargebacks at scale with streamlined disputes management, including risk management services to handle disputes on their behalf.
Dashboard
The Marqeta Dashboard is a comprehensive self-service portal that empowers the company’s customers to access and manage all aspects of their card program, including card configuration, servicing cardholders, tracking data and insights, managing disputes, and accessing RiskControl capabilities.
UI/UX
User experience is an essential part of all Marqeta programs. Marqeta makes it easy for the company’s customers to completely integrate the card experience into any app or website. For the company’s credit customers, they can select a fully bank-approved UI template that's purpose-built for managing a credit card.
In 2024, the company introduced the UX Toolkit, which allows customers to create branded front-end experiences using a comprehensive set of pre-built UI components optimized for Marqeta's APIs. It enables customers to build Marqeta-powered debit and credit programs with fewer development resources.
Credit Capabilities
With Marqeta’s credit products, the company’s customers have the tools to design, launch, and scale, and can work directly with it rather than managing several different providers. Customers can customize the user experience and embed the card within their brands. The company’s ability to offer configurable and flexible solutions enables its customers to build highly differentiated programs with truly personalized rewards and spend controls.
Innovative Rewards Structures: Customers can leverage the company’s proprietary rewards engine, keeping users engaged with innovative rewards structures using multiple data points across user spend as well as transactions, repayments, and other data points. The company’s comprehensive platform enables customers to reward users in real time with multiple redemption options, creating opportunities to drive engagement and usage.
Underwriting Support: The company’s underwriting decisioning engine allows Issuing Banks and customers to implement custom fraud and credit decisioning criteria to help manage program fraud and delinquency risk. The company’s comprehensive platform allows for automated decisioning using a variety of data sources and custom logic.
Portfolio Migration
In 2024, the company launched Portfolio Migration, a new service that simplifies upgrading existing card programs onto its platform, reducing complexity and minimizing disruption during the transition. This capability includes two main components: an automated migration tool that transforms and aligns card program data from the previous system to Marqeta's platform, as well as operational processes to ensure a smooth transition.
Marqeta Flex
In 2024, the company announced Marqeta Flex, a new solution that will transform how buy now, pay later (BNPL) payment options can be delivered inside payment apps and wallets, by surfacing them when needed within the payment flow. Marqeta Flex is being developed with a few of the company’s customers, and it expects to release it in 2025. With Marqeta Flex, the company plans to expand BNPL distribution even further by giving consumers access to personalized BNPL options inside of their payment apps of choice.
The intended benefits of Marqeta Flex for consumers, BNPL providers, and issuers include:
Consumers: With Marqeta Flex, consumers will be guided to the BNPL options that can meet their needs, with access to personalized BNPL options inside of the payment apps they use most often.
BNPL Providers: Marqeta Flex is expected to expand BNPL distribution, enabling BNPL providers to benefit from greater access to consumers and higher transaction volumes.
Card Issuers: Marqeta Flex will be a powerful solution for digital wallets and card issuers, allowing them to drive payment volume by incorporating multiple BNPL offerings into the transaction experience that can be customized to user preferences. A single integration with Marqeta Flex is intended to provide them access to a variety of global BNPL providers, and is expected to increase the speed at which they can build and launch card solutions that offer flexible payment methods, including custom and user-friendly BNPL loan options.
Programs
Marqeta’s innovative products are developed with deep domain expertise and a customer-first mindset to launch, scale, and manage card programs. Marqeta provides all of its customers with issuer processor services, and for most of its customers it also acts as a card program manager. Depending on a customer’s desired level of control and responsibility, Marqeta can work with companies in a range of different configurations, but generally provide the following offerings:
Managed By Marqeta: With Managed By Marqeta (MxM), Marqeta typically connects customers to an Issuing Bank to act as the Bank Identification Number (BIN) sponsor for the customer’s card program, manages the customer’s card program on behalf of the Issuing Bank, and provides a full range of services, including configuring many of the critical resources required by a customer’s production environment. In addition to providing the customer access to the Marqeta dashboard via the company’s APIs, Marqeta also manages a number of the primary tasks related to launching a card program, such as defining and managing the program with the Card Networks and Issuing Bank, operating the program and managing certain profitability components, and managing compliance with applicable regulations, the Issuing Bank, and Card Network rules. Also available are a variety of managed services, including dispute management, fraud scoring, card fulfillment, reconciliation, and cardholder support services.
Powered By Marqeta: With Powered By Marqeta (PxM), Marqeta also provides customers access to the Marqeta dashboard via the company’s APIs, provides payment processing, and assists with certain configuration elements that enable the customer to use the platform independently. Generally, the company’s PxM customers are responsible for other elements of the card program, including defining and managing the program with the Card Networks and Issuing Bank, as well as managing compliance with applicable regulations, the Issuing Bank, and Card Network rules.
Given the modularity of the Marqeta platform, certain customers can also opt to incorporate elements of MxM into their card program to create a custom solution. Many customers adopt some combination of the MxM managed services even when not adopting the full MxM offering.
Customers
Marqeta serves customers in multiple industry verticals including financial services, on-demand services, BNPL, expense management, and e-commerce enablement.
Marqeta’s platform operates across a number of use cases for customers, including consumer credit cards, point-of-sale lending, accelerated/earned wage access, expense management, on-demand delivery, and spend management. Customers can also combine solutions across different use cases.
Relationships with Issuing Banks and Card Networks
Marqeta works with Card Networks and Issuing Banks to enable card issuance, authorize transactions, and facilitate settlement for the company’s customers’ card programs. The company’s contractual relationships with Issuing Banks and Card Networks underpin Marqeta’s ability to design and manage customized card programs for its customers.
Relationship and Agreements with Issuing Banks
Issuing Banks provide services for these customers that can include, among other things, card issuance, Card Network sponsorship, establishing a line of credit, and creating deposit accounts used to settle transactions. The company’s contracts with Issuing Banks entitle Marqeta to all of the Interchange Fees generated from its customers’ card programs, which it then shares with its customers through Revenue Share payments, and obligates it to pay all Card Network fees, as well as certain Issuing Bank fees associated with its customers’ card transactions.
While an Issuing Bank must ultimately approve each card program, Marqeta configures the program design, negotiates key program terms, and selects the Issuing Bank for each customer. Marqeta actively works to find the most appropriate Issuing Bank partner for the potential card program based on the customer’s needs and program design. The company pays volume-based and transaction-based fees to the Issuing Banks. The fees are typically structured based on volume tiers; as its processing volumes grow, these fees as a percentage of processing volume decline.
Certain customers engage the company for a combination of its MxM and PxM services based on their unique needs. The involvement of the company’s Issuing Banks and the Card Networks in these types of programs will depend on each program’s design.
Sutton Bank
On April 1, 2016, the company entered into a prepaid card program manager agreement with Sutton Bank, its largest Issuing Bank partner by processing volume. Under the terms of the agreement, as amended, Sutton Bank, among other things, issues cards and settles payment transactions for Marqeta’s customers’ approved card programs. The agreement provides that it pays Sutton Bank a fee based on a percentage of the value of transactions processed.
Agreements with Card Networks
The Card Networks oversee their worldwide payment networks, through which debit, credit, and prepaid card payments are authorized, processed, and settled, and, except as limited by applicable law, set Interchange Fee rates. The company partners with a number of Card Networks, including Visa, Mastercard, and PULSE, to process its customers’ transactions on its platform.
Mastercard
In 2020, the company entered into a strategic relationship agreement with Mastercard. The company has also entered into a number of subsequent arrangements with Mastercard, including certain brand agreements. Under these agreements, as amended, the company has agreed to cooperate with Mastercard on a number of initiatives, including international expansion, product, marketing, and business development collaboration. The contracts provide Marqeta with tiered incentives based on the processing volume of the ocmpany’s customers’ transactions routed through Mastercard and its affiliated networks.
Visa
In 2017, the company entered into a strategic alliance framework agreement with Visa. The agreement has been periodically amended. The company has also entered into a number of subsequent arrangements with Visa, as governed by the strategic alliance framework agreement, including a card partner agreement, and certain brand agreements. Under these agreements, the company has agreed to cooperate with Visa on a number of initiatives, including international expansion, product, marketing, and business development collaboration. The contracts provide Marqeta with tiered incentives based on the processing volume of the ocmpany’s customers’ transactions routed through Visa and its affiliated networks.
PULSE Network
In 2013, the company entered into a direct processor agreement with PULSE Network LLC, which has been subsequently amended. The contract provides Marqeta with tiered incentives based on the processing volume of the company’s customers’ transactions routed through PULSE and its affiliated networks. The term of the contract expires in 2028 and automatically renews annually thereafter, unless either party provides written notice of its intent not to renew.
Intellectual Property
The company has a patent program designed to cover various aspects of its business in the United States and internationally. These patents and patent applications are intended to protect the company’s proprietary inventions relevant to its business. The company has also registered domain names for websites that it uses in its business, such as www.marqeta.com and other similar variations.
Research and Development Costs
The company’s research and development costs, which consist primarily of salaries, employee benefits, share-based compensation, third-party hosting fees, and software licenses were $141.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Government Regulation
The company is subject, directly, or indirectly through its relationships with its Issuing Banks, customers, or Card Networks, to a number of laws and regulations. The regulatory environment in which it operates is rapidly evolving, and some of the most significant government regulations in the U.S.
The company is subject to Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, and Section 1031 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which prohibits unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices in connection with any consumer financial product or service.
The company provides services that are subject to various laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and information security, including, among others, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation, and the California Consumer Protection Act. The company maintains privacy policies and terms of service, which describe its practices concerning the use, transmission, and disclosure of certain information.
Additionally, the company’s platform hosts, transmits, processes, and stores payment card data and is therefore required to comply with the PCI DSS. As a result, the company is subject to PCI DSS audits and must comply with related security requirements.
The company’s Issuing Banks must comply with the bylaws, regulations, and requirements that are set forth by the Card Networks, including the PCI DSS and other applicable data security program requirements. In providing services through its platform, the company is certified and registered with certain Card Networks as a processor for member institutions. As such, the company is subject to applicable Card Network rules that could subject it to fines or penalties for certain acts or omissions. The Card Networks routinely update and modify their requirements and it, in turn, must work to comply with such updates to continue processing transactions on their networks.
Further, the company is subject to network operating rules promulgated by the National Automated Clearing House Association relating to payment transactions processed on its platform using the Automated Clearing House Network and to various federal and state laws regarding such operations.
The company may directly or indirectly be subject to various federal and state consumer credit protection regimes as a result of its credit platform and relationship with originating Issuing Banks, including, among others:
the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B promulgated thereunder, which prohibit creditors from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, marital status, the fact that all or part of the applicant’s income derives from any public assistance program, or the fact that the applicant has in good faith exercised any right under the Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act or any applicable state law;
the Fair Credit Reporting Act, as amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, and Regulation V promulgated thereunder, which promote the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of consumer reporting agencies;
the Truth-in-Lending Act, as amended by the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009, and Regulation Z promulgated thereunder, which require certain disclosures to consumers regarding the terms and conditions of loans, credit cards, and credit transactions;
the Military Lending Act and similar state laws, which provide disclosure requirements, interest rate limitations, substantive conduct obligations, and prohibitions on certain behavior relating to loans made to covered borrowers, which include both servicemembers and their dependents; and
the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and similar state laws, which allows active duty military members to suspend or postpone certain civil obligations so that the military member can devote his or her full attention to military duties.
The company is subject to anti-corruption and anti-bribery and similar laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended (the FCPA), the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the U.K. Bribery Act 2010, and other anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in countries where it conducts activities.
The company is subject to examination by its Issuing Banks’ regulators and must comply with certain regulations to which these banks are subject, as applicable. For instance, due to its relationships with certain Issuing Banks and certain customers, the company may be subject to indirect supervision and examination by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the FDIC), state banking regulators (such as the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Reserve Bank in connection with its platform and certain of its products and services. The company is also subject to audit by certain Issuing Banks. As a program manager for the Issuing Banks it works with, the company is subject to the Issuing Banks’ risk management standards for third-party relationships in accordance with supervisory guidance and examination by certain federal banking agencies.
History
Marqeta, Inc. was founded in 2010. The company was incorporated in the state of Delaware in 2010.
