Marqeta deepens global partnership with Mastercard

By Pavithra R

Marqeta, a payment processing and cash issuing platform provider has announced an extended global partnership with Mastercard to expand into new geographies, open access to new products, and launch additional card programs together.

Mastercard and Marqeta have been working together since 2014 to help digital banks, FinTechs, and commerce disruptors across North America and Europe bring innovative card products and programs to market. The two companies are planning to expand their collaboration into multiple new geographies beginning in the Asia Pacific, optimizing for global scale and driving efficiencies across their businesses to better serve the market.

Mastercard will assist expedite Marqeta’s international expansion by streamlining its global network certification process, which governs which providers are allowed to process international payments through the Mastercard network. As part of the partnership, Mastercard has also made a financial investment in Marqeta.

“With a shared vision to provide innovative and flexible financial products and solutions to our customers, we’re thrilled to expand our partnership with Marqeta. We look forward to collaborating with Marqeta through this next stage of growth and enable our joint partners to tap into capabilities that deliver differentiated experiences,” said Sherri Haymond, executive vice president, Digital Partnerships at Mastercard. 

The collaboration between the companies will open access to Mastercard products for Marqeta customers and will closely partner on future products, with emphasis on expanding and launching more card programs together. Marqeta will also participate in Mastercard’s digital enablement programs to help accelerate time to market for newer startups. The companies together have already helped bring several new card products to market, including industry-first innovations like the Square Card. 

“With Square Card, we were looking to do something that hadn’t been done before – providing small businesses instant access to their sales earnings through a business debit card. We needed the right flexible and modern card issuing platform, and the right future-focused network partnerships to make this happen. Marqeta and Mastercard were a huge part in helping us launch and scale this program so successfully, and we’re excited to see them accelerate and grow this partnership globally,” said Christopher Sweetland, Head of Industry Relations and Payments Operations at Square.

Recently, Swipe partnered with Marqeta and launched LendFi.

Founded in 2010, Marqeta brings speed and efficiency to card issuing and payment processing with its open API platform. Innovators powered by Marqeta include Square, Uber, Affirm, Instacart, and DoorDash. The company is established in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and is launching its first transactions in Australia this year.