Although it is not a name recognized by consumers, Marqeta a payment tech company, has been steadily increasing in value and its worth is reportedly said to have topped $16 billion on the private market. The company also reported robust sales. It has filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Friday. It has been ranked at the 33rd position on the CNBC’s Disruptor List of 2020.
Marqeta was founded in 2010 and has its headquarters in Oakland, California. It currently operates in the United States, Canada, Asia-Pacific region, and the European Union.
The company said that its annualized revenue growth in the first quarter rose by 123 percent and stood at a total of $108 million. It also said that its net loss had come down from $14.5 million, in the earlier year to $12.8 million in the current report.
Marqeta’s performance was good in year 2020. Its annual revenue had doubled to reach $290.3 million. The loss recorded in the same year stood at $47.7 million. Last year the company had also raised capital of $150 million from an institutional investor, whose name was not divulged by the company. This led to a doubling of the company’s evaluation to $4.3 billion.
Marqeta is a tech company that has developed a platform which simplifies payment card issuing and processing. This improves business efficiency. Many technology startups including Square, Uber, Instacart and Affirm are among its customers. In 2020, its platform was used to issue almost a million and a half cards.
These digital cards, which are physical, look similar to credit or debit cards. These cards can be used by contractors from Instacart or other clients to make point-of-sales purchases in retail stores or supermarkets. Marqueta says that its payment technology is designed in such a way that it can detect potential fraud. It also ensures that money is correctly routed.
It does have competition in the market as other companies including Fiserv, FIS, Stripe, Plaid and Ayden also have digital payments.
Marqueta has mentioned that its sales have grown as many customers have shifted to online payments due to the pandemic. In its filing, it says that its net revenue growth could be affected if customers spending patterns change or slow down or reverse after the pandemic eases.
