Fintech Marqeta is the newest addition to the Unicorn herd as it has closed on $260 million funding round at a $2 billion valuation.
The Series E round, led by Coatue Management, should help solidify Marqeta’s importance in the burgeoning card issuance market both domestically and globally.
The round involved several new investors, including Vitruvian Partners, Spark Capital, Lone Pine and Geodesic.
Existing Marqeta investors include Visa, ICONIQ, Goldman Sachs, 83North, Granite Ventures, CommerzVentures and Chinese Fintech CreditEase.
Marqeta has recently opened an office in London as part of a European expansion.
Founded in 2010, Marqeta is the leading global card issuer with new APIs that enable a new generation of businesses to build in innovative payment programs and experiences. Companies like Square, Affirm, DoorDash, Kabbage and Instacart, are customers.
Jason Gardner, founder and CEO of Marqeta, said the industry is in the midst of a transformation regarding card issuance:
“When today’s innovators are in need of modern payment solutions, they aren’t turning to banks as their primary issuers anymore and want a platform built for their needs. We’ve been proud to power this transformation as the most advanced card issuing platform built in over two decades. It has been exciting to see our customers embrace these new possibilities and build extraordinary products and services that have helped define markets in their own right.”
Omri Dahan, CRO of Marqeta, said he sees the round as a huge validation of what they have built.
“It’s a proud moment for us as a company, reflecting our world-class talent, top-tier customer service and the tremendous value we’ve been able to build in the payment space. We’re looking forward to growing this even further, while using the round to further fuel our domestic and international expansion. We’re just getting started in unlocking the potential and possibility we see in the industry and see this as another great step in the Marqeta story.”
Marqeta highlights that the global market for card issuing volume is over $45 trillion. This market is traditionally dominated by big banks – not a sector that is known for innovation nor moving quickly.. Marqeta’s payments platform is at the core of a secular shift to capture consumer and business deposits, lending volume and card payment activity.
Investor Kris Fredrickson, Partner at Coatue Management, said they believe Marqeta has the ability to transform the card issuance service and global payments infrastructure:
“The company’s momentum over the last several years is a testament to the team’s hard work and the scale of the opportunity at hand.”
Gardner said that Marqeta is a “generational business” describing the impact of its services.
“Marqeta is attacking a multi-trillion dollar opportunity in this market. This investment puts us in prime position to round out our product vision, bring Marqeta to new geographies, build even more groundbreaking features for our customers and double down on our already aggressive growth trajectory.”