U.S. card issuing platform Marqeta is now a European-certified processor through a partnership with Mastercard that aims to help FinTechs in the region get to market faster.
Founded in 2010, Marqeta helps third parties like Square, Affirm, DoorDash, Kabbage and Instacart build and offer card services to their customers through its open API. It will now work with the payments giant on a program to allow Mastercard issuers in Europe to build, test and launch digital-first card programs, providing instant access to a sandbox and fully published API documentation.
“By partnering with an innovative global payment platform like Marqeta, we can help Mastercard issuers build card products even faster, while also retaining complete control over the end to end process,” said Jason Lane, EVP, market development Europe at Mastercard.
Twisto, a daily payments app linked to a card, will be the first customer to utilize the service. Launched in 2013, the app is used by over 600,000 customers in Czech and Poland, and has expanded to Romania. Michal Smida, founder/CEO at Twisto, noted that the recent launch of the app and card in Poland resulted in over 70,000 sign ups and over 20,000 cards ordered in the first 30 days.
“We are very pleased with the speed of execution through this launch, and strategic partners like Mastercard and Marqeta have been fundamental to enabling the success of the technology,” he said.
Marqeta raised $260 million in venture funding last year, bringing its valuation close to $2 billion. The Series E round was led by Coatue Management, with participation from several new and existing investors.
One of those investors—Visa—recently announced a collaboration with Marqeta focused on a helping Visa issuers to build, test and launch digital-first card programs in 10 Asia Pacific markets: Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The region is the world’s fastest growing digital payments landscape, with the market expected to rise by $23 trillion over the next decade.
The partnership means that FinTech firms with domestic wallets in those markets can turn user account balances into digital card credentials everywhere Visa is accepted, and where the Marqeta platform is certified.
