Marqeta

Marqeta is an Oakland, California-based payments company that provides a modern card issuing and transaction processing platform. Its platform lets companies create and run physical and virtual card programs — debit, credit, prepaid and flexible credentials — through open APIs and developer SDKs, rather than through legacy issuer-processors. Core functionality spans card issuing (physical and virtual cards, tokenization, card management and fulfillment), processing and settlement (authentication and 3DS, Just-in-Time funding, dynamic spend controls), a dashboard for card lifecycle management, data insights and case management, accounts and money movement, a RiskControl feature set for fraud mitigation and compliance management, and open APIs and webhooks. The company reports more than 370 API endpoints. Marqeta states it is not a bank or lender; it supplies technology that its customers use with services from its bank partners, with availability varying by jurisdiction [0][1][3][4].

The platform's distinguishing mechanics are Just-in-Time (JIT) funding and dynamic spend controls, which allow the card program operator to authorize or decline each transaction in real time based on criteria such as location, amount and merchant type, and to release funds only at the moment of authorization. Marqeta also offers PCI widgets, digital wallets and tokenization, and DiVA reporting/analytics and Core APIs for developers. Security and compliance claims include PCI DSS, PCI 3DS, SOC 1 and SOC 2 certifications [0][3][4].

Marqeta describes itself as the first open-API modern card issuing platform and serves sectors including buy now, pay later, on-demand delivery, expense management, retail and digital banking. Named customers and references include Square, Affirm, Western Union, Instacart, DoorDash and Kabbage [0][4][6][7]. The company markets both consumer solutions (digital banking, consumer credit) and commercial solutions (supplier payments, commercial banking, expense management, commercial credit), plus program management [0].

Founding story

Jason Gardner conceived Marqeta in 2009 with a goal of simplifying payments, after selling his prior rent-payment startup PropertyBridge (founded 2004) to MoneyGram in 2007 for $28 million and staying on as an executive. Marqeta, named after a woman Gardner and a friend had traveled with in Prague, launched first as a consumer prepaid loyalty card sold in grocery stores, funded with about $6 million from investors including 83North. Gardner built an entirely new issuing/processing system rather than partnering with incumbents, which delayed the launch by nearly two years; the consumer product failed [2][6][7].

Business model

Marqeta sells card issuing and processing infrastructure to businesses that want to launch their own card programs, packaging relationships with issuing banks, card networks and card fulfillment providers so customers do not have to assemble them separately. Customers integrate via open APIs and retain the system of record/ledger on their side, using JIT funding to approve transactions [0][7].

According to a 2019 Forbes report, Marqeta earns revenue by taking a cut of each transaction processed, similar to card networks; the article states the average fee was roughly 1% before rebates to clients, though Marqeta does not disclose the figure [7].

Traction

Marqeta reports approximately $400 billion in payments volume processed in 2025, 99.99% platform uptime in 2025, certification to operate in 40+ countries, and 80x volume growth since 2017 [0][1][2][4]. Forbes reported revenue roughly doubling every year since 2016 to close to $150 million in 2018 (per an unnamed source) and headcount growth from 75 to 275 employees over the prior two years [7]. Marqeta says its technology helped delivery companies cut fraud in half, to 5% or less, over the two years before March 2019 [7].

Latest developments

Marqeta's website states nearly $400 billion in annual payments volume processed in 2025 and 99.99% uptime in 2025, and describes a partnership with zerohash extending the platform to support stablecoin-backed card programs [0][4].