- Oakland, California-based modern card issuing platform company Marqeta announced it signed a deal with CashFlows
- Marqeta also recently raised $260 million Series E funding at a valuation of nearly $2 billion
Marqeta is an Oakland, California-based modern card issuing platform company that provides one of the most advanced infrastructures and tools for building highly configurable payment cards. Recently, Marqeta announced several major milestones including signing a deal with CashFlows and a funding round that gave the company a valuation of nearly $2 billion.
Deal With CashFlows
At the Money20/20 Europe event in Amsterdam, Marqeta announced the partnership with CashFlows — which is a consolidated business payment services company — for providing bank information number (BIN) sponsorship services for its growing roster of European fintech customers.
CashFlows originally started in London about nine years ago and started providing BIN sponsorship services through its e-money license and direct membership in the Mastercard and Visa card schemes around then. By combining these services with its EU regulatory and compliance expertise, it enables companies to easily cross over the hurdle of launching European payment card programs by accepting payments and processing transactions.
And CashFlows’ BIN sponsorship services are also complemented by their merchant acquiring capabilities that enable end customers to load funds to their card.
“Since we launched in the market at the end of 2018, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm for our European Digital Banking solutions and real demand for a truly modern payments platform,” said Marqeta’s head of European Growth Ian Johnson. “To be able to pair the new payment possibilities opened up by the Marqeta platform, with a BIN sponsor like CashFlows who knows what it takes to develop, launch and scale payment programs quickly in a rapidly evolving payments landscape, is going to make us even stronger.”
Marqeta recently launched a European Digital Banking solution that is already relied upon by digital banks such as Morning and YAPEAL along with the point of sale lender Aplazame. And the Marqeta platform helps customers build, test, and refine new features in a developer sandbox — which allows them to build unique payment solutions that can be integrated with existing systems and software. This system supports instantly issued virtual cards and offers advanced spend controls to engage users and grow card usage, which will now be supported in partnership with CashFlows.
“There’s a tight synergy and a close cultural alignment between what CashFlows and Marqeta are looking to accomplish in the market,” added Jonathan Bennett — the Chief Commercial Officer of CashFlows. “Scheme membership is a complicated, time consuming and expensive process for fintechs that can otherwise focus their energy on honing the proposition and launch strategy. CashFlows brings inside-out knowledge of the process to speed things up and put power back in the hands of program owners. Marqeta is coming from a similar place – changing the rules in the market for the better, making it simpler and easier to get to market – and we’re excited to be working together.”
$260 Million Series E At Valuation Of Nearly $2 Billion
Marqeta also recently announced that it completed a $260 million Series E round of funding led by Coatue Management. This round of funding valued Marqeta at nearly $2 billion.
Vitruvian Partners, Spark Capital, Lone Pine Capital, and Geodesic also joined this round. And they joined existing investors Visa, ICONIQ, Goldman Sachs, 83North, Granite Ventures, CommerzVentures, and CreditEase.
“We are in the midst of a transformation in card issuing around the globe,” explained Marqeta founder and CEO Jason Gardner. “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.”
According to Edgar, Dunn & Company’s research, the global market for card issuing volume is over $45 trillion. And new entrants are disrupting a space that has been traditionally dominated by larger banks.
“We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Marqeta,” noted Coatue Management partner Kris Fredrickson. “We believe that the company has a world class team, industry-leading technology, and the ability to bring about profound change in card issuing and the 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.”
Some of Marqeta’s customers include Square, Affirm, DoorDash, Kabbage, and Instacart. These customers have been customizing payment cards to meet the needs of customers. And Marqeta’s revenue doubled for three straight years.
