Marqeta Valued At $2B After $260M Fundraising

Marqeta, the global card issuing platform, announced on Tuesday (May 21) that it has raised $260 million in venture funding.

In a press release, Marqeta said the Series E round of fundraising was led by Coatue Management, and gives the company a valuation of close to $2 billion. Marqeta said it will use the fundraising to accelerate plans to expand domestically and in select global markets. Other investors in the fundraising round include Vitruvian Partners, Spark Capital, Lone Pine Capital and Geodesic. They join existing Marqeta investors Visa, ICONIQ, Goldman Sachs, 83North, Granite Ventures, CommerzVentures and CreditEase.

Founded in 2010, Marqeta has become one of the leading modern card issuers powered by its platform. Its open APIs enable businesses to build payment programs and enable tech companies like Square, Affirm, DoorDash, Kabbage and Instacart to customize payment cards to meet the need of their customers. The company said revenue has doubled three years in a row, and it has seen a “dramatic” increase in spending activity on its platform.

“We are in the midst of a transformation in card issuing around the globe,” said Jason Gardner, founder and CEO of Marqeta, in the press release. “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 Marqeta, citing research from Edgar, Dunn & Company, the global market for card issuing volume is more than $45 trillion. New entrants are disrupting the market, which has long been dominated by big banks. The company’s platform is playing a role in the movement.

“We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Marqeta,” said Kris Fredrickson, partner at Coatue Management. “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.”