Canadian FinTech platform Shakepay and Marqeta partner to introduce Shakepay Card

By Pavithra R

Shakepay, a Montreal-based technology company that provides financial applications for building wealth has announced partnering with Marqeta, the global payment processing and cash issuing platform provider, to power the launch of a new Visa prepaid card for Shakepay customers, issued by Marqeta’s sponsoring financial institution Peoples Trust Company.

“Shakepay has a great DNA match with Marqeta. They bring a strong builder mindset that will be critical to delivering important innovations to the market. This is a groundbreaking card product in the Canadian market, bridging the gap between digital currencies and the traditional point of sale, allowing cardholders to more easily monetize the value of their digital currency holdings,” said Salman Syed, SVP/GM North America at Marqeta.

Founded in 2015, Shakepay is a leading platform for buying and selling digital currencies in Canada. It reports facilitating more than $2 bn CAD in purchases and sales on its platform to date and serving more than 420,000 Canadians. Its multi-currency digital wallet allows its users to transact in Canadian dollars as well as Bitcoin and Ethereum and transfer balances and cash out easily. The new prepaid card is a separate complementary product that will allow customers to spend Canadian dollars at physical and virtual merchants.

“As we looked at the best way to develop a prepaid card to complement the Shakepay wallet, and build out an excellent user experience, it became clear that Marqeta was the only card issuer capable of meeting our needs. The openness and flexibility of Marqeta’s card issuing platform enabled us to bring a completely new card product to the Canadian market, while innovating at speed and scale,” said Shakepay CEO Jean Amiouny.

Founded in 2010, Marqeta brings speed and efficiency to card issuing and payment processing with its open API platform. The firm supports some of the leading innovators at scale, including Square, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Uber, Affirm, Instacart, and DoorDash, by providing advanced infrastructure and tools for building highly configurable payment solutions. The company is established in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and Australia.