YAPEAL picks Marqeta to power new digital wallet

By Robin Amlot

Swiss-based FinTech start-up YAPEAL has launched a new digital wallet, powered by Marqeta’s modern card issuing platform. Having received the first ever FinTech licence in Switzerland from FINMA, YAPEAL will provide customers with a full Swiss current account and a mobile-ready Visa debit card in ten minutes, a process that would usually take a week. Utilising Marqeta’s instant card issuing capabilities, the digital wallet will offer a range of personal finance features, including the ability to issue a mobile ready debit card that can connect to mobile payment apps, starting with Google Pay, and Apple Pay and Samsung Pay coming soon.

“Taking a week to be able to open a bank account and receive a debit card is just too long in today’s digital world. With the help of Marqeta, our customers can now set up an account and begin using their debit cards to shop online in just minutes. The Swiss banking sector has long been lagging behind other areas; banking innovations haven’t kept pace with the infrastructure in other industries, like leisure and retail. This is the gap that we are looking to close with our new, disruptive digital wallet,” said Daniel Capraro, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, YAPEAL. “Marqeta has been central to us achieving this goal, with a modern payments platform and a shared vision to redefine financial services. With Marqeta, we created the entire offering process in two and a half months, one that would have taken eighteen months with other providers. We’re thrilled to be bringing this speed to the Swiss market and, looking to the future, hope to do the same internationally.”

Marqeta has also been pivotal in enabling YAPEAL’s Mobile Wallet functionality, as it provides a token to the digital wallet. The process of setting up tokenised payment capabilities with other providers would usually have taken over six months with a team of around sixty people. With Marqeta, YAPEAL was able to implement tokenisation in approximately one month with just one developer spending a fraction of their time on the project.

“The Marqeta platform has been at the core of creating our current card offering, the most prominent feature in our portfolio,” said Thomas Hilgendorff, CEO, YAPEAL. “The platform has enabled us to provide instant card issuing to our customers, a capability that traditional providers are not able to match that is currently unique in Switzerland. Marqeta also provides the flexibility necessary to create new features and capabilities whenever we want, facilitating the future offerings on our product roadmap.”