Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Our Business
Marqeta created modern card issuing, and we believe modern card issuing is at the heart of today’s digital economy.
When you order food using DoorDash or groceries using Instacart, modern card issuing works in the background as money moves from the app to the delivery driver or shopper’s payment card, allowing the driver or shopper to pay for exactly what you ordered, and nothing else.
When you buy a big screen TV and pay for it in installments using Affirm or Klarna, modern card issuing helps move money to the payment card that Affirm or Klarna uses to seamlessly pay the merchant.
When you receive money from your friend through Block’s Cash App, modern card issuing helps move the funds to your debit card, making it instantly available to you to make purchases.
Marqeta’s modern card issuing platform empowers our Customers - which include businesses like Affirm, Block (formerly known as Square), DoorDash, Instacart, and Klarna - to create customized payment cards that provide innovative payment experiences for their customers, shoppers, and end users. Before the rise of modern card issuing, creating cards was slow, complex, and subject to mistakes. Marqeta helps solve these problems. Our Platform, powered by open APIs, enables businesses to develop modern, frictionless payment card experiences for consumer and commercial use cases that are either the core of, or in support of, their core business.
Our modern architecture allows for flexibility, a high degree of configurability, and accelerated product development, democratizing access to card issuing technology. Marqeta’s open APIs provide instant access to our highly scalable, cloud-based, and configurable payment infrastructure that enables our Customers to launch and manage their own card programs, issue cards to their customers or end users, and authorize and settle payments transactions.
Marqeta is the first company to offer a Platform for modern card issuing and transaction processing and we believe also the first to market with multiple issuing and processing innovations, including the first open APIs, JIT Funding, and Tokenization as a Service. Marqeta’s modern card issuing Platform supports prepaid, debit, and credit products. Modern card issuing is secure card issuing and processing delivered via an open API platform that enables card issuers to create customized payment card products that leverage a just-in-time funding feature, authorizing their end users’ transactions in real-time. Integrated with major global and local Card Networks, modern card issuing enables card issuers to build payment solutions to their specifications and launch them globally.
We believe we are deeply integrated with our Customers in three ways: our technology underpins their core business or supports a core business process, our solutions drive their key processes, and our people become their trusted partner. In addition, our usage-based business model provides a win/win for both our Customers and us: as their businesses thrive, our net revenue grows.
The strength and durability of our Customer relationships are evidenced by our year-over-year net revenue growth of 78% and our dollar-based net revenue retention of 175% for the year ended December 31, 2021. Our dollar-based net revenue retention was over 200% for each of the years ended December 31, 2020, and 2019. In the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, the Marqeta Platform processed TPV of $111.1 billion, $60.1 billion and $21.7 billion, respectively, which reflected year-over-year growth of 85% and 177%, respectively.
Our products meet the card issuing and transaction processing needs of commerce disruptors, digital banks, tech giants, and large financial institutions alike. Marqeta has already emerged as a card issuing platform category leader in many disruptive verticals, including on-demand services, lending (including buy-now-pay-later, or BNPL, financing), expense management, disbursements, online marketplaces, and digital banking (including cryptocurrency), and our Platform is sought out by tech giants and large financial institutions to improve their existing offerings and stay competitive with technology-focused new market entrants.
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As we expand our use cases, product offerings, and global footprint, we attract new industry innovators and help existing Customers expand into new verticals, programs, markets, and geographies. Our Customers consistently tell us that our ability to work at speed, simplify the complex, and envision their end users’ experience helps them focus on what they do best— building innovative products and serving their customers . We believe our culture of customer-centricity, innovation, teamwork, and clarity of mission is why Customers trust us with their mission critical payments needs and continue to grow and expand with us.
We have grown and scaled rapidly in recent periods. Our total net revenue was $517.2 million, $290.3 million and $143.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively, an increase of 78% and 103% from the prior years, respectively. We incurred net losses of $163.9 million, $47.7 million, and $58.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
The Payments Ecosystem
A complex ecosystem of Issuing Banks and Acquiring Banks, Acquirer Processors, Issuer Processors, and the Card Networks that facilitate the exchange of information and funds underpins global payment card purchase transactions.
Legacy Payments Ecosystem
• Issuing Bank: The financial institution that issues the payment card (credit, debit, or prepaid) either on its own behalf or on behalf of a card issuer.
• Issuer Processor: Provides the technology platform, ledger, and infrastructure to support a card issuer and connects with a Card Network to facilitate payment transactions.
• Card issuer: A business that issues customized card products to its end users.
• Card Networks: Provides the infrastructure for settlement and card payment information that flows between the Issuer Processor and the Acquirer Processor.
• Acquirer Processor: Provides the technology that facilitates the flow of card payment information through Card Networks to the Issuing Bank.
• Acquiring Bank: The financial institution that merchants use to hold funds and manage their business. The Acquiring Bank may work with an Acquirer Processor to provide access to the Card Networks. The Acquiring Bank is also referred to sometimes as the merchant bank.
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Modern Payments Ecosystem
Modern card issuing is secure card issuing and processing delivered via an open API platform that enables card issuers to create customized payment card products that leverage a just-in-time funding feature, authorizing their end users’ transactions in real-time. Integrated with major global and local Card Networks, modern card issuing enables card issuers to build payment solutions to their specifications and launch them globally. This modern infrastructure allows for significant innovation in the payments ecosystem. It enables a new class of card issuers to emerge by simplifying and democratizing the issuing process. It expands the issuing medium beyond physical cards to keep pace with the demands of digital commerce and mobile wallets, increasing regulatory and security requirements, and cross-border capabilities. It gives developers highly configurable controls that enable them to provide a customized solution to their business and customer needs. It operates on an extensible cloud infrastructure that works globally and enables scale and simplicity even as card issuer, merchant, and consumer demands become increasingly complex.
In other words, a modern payments ecosystem puts innovation, accessibility, flexibility, control, and scale into the hands of card issuers by delivering all of these benefits in one easy-to-use platform. This type of platform solution powers the growth of new verticals and new card issuers and enables innovation for large financial institutions who are looking to expand their products and use cases to remain competitive in an increasingly digitized world. We believe Marqeta has built such a platform.
Our Platform and Products
Marqeta provides a single, global, cloud-based, open API Platform for modern card issuing and transaction processing. The Marqeta Platform provides next generation payment experiences for tech-driven, developer-led companies and is well positioned to address the payment needs of commerce disruptors, digital banks, tech giants, and large financial institutions.
Our Platform
Marqeta’s modern card issuing Platform was built by developers for developers. Our Customers are able to use our simple, data-rich, and accessible Platform to build and rapidly scale their card programs, with extensive control and configurability, and with the highest standards of reliability and security. Our Platform is designed to reduce complexity for card issuers, enabling a full spectrum of card issuing and transaction processing services in a single solution.
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Our Platform has a number of key attributes, including:
Accessible: We democratize key payment capabilities to enable any business to start issuing physical, virtual, or tokenized payment cards (e.g., Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay) that are configured to its individual business needs. New Customers do not need to have deep payment expertise to issue cards and process transactions.
Simple: Our Platform makes payment transactions simple by working behind the scenes to translate the complex into intuitive and developer-friendly user experiences. We provide direct integrations with the Card Networks, including Visa, Mastercard, and PULSE, which is part of the Discover Global Network, enabling developers to use Marqeta’s single unified platform for all of their payments integrations.
Scalable: The Marqeta Platform is highly agile and scalable, allowing our Customers to launch and grow card programs with speed and confidence. As a global platform built on a single codebase to support our Customers worldwide, we have a build-once, deploy-anywhere model, offering seamless integration with global and local Card Networks.
Configurable: The Marqeta Platform is highly configurable and is able to serve use cases previously unaddressed by legacy systems, such as BNPL financing at the point-of-sale in the lending industry. Our Platform’s configurability significantly expands the categories of businesses that can begin issuing their own cards to solve complex payment needs.
Innovative: Marqeta is a hub for innovation. Instant card issuance, provisioning to digital wallets, JIT Funding, and dynamic spend controls enable our Customers to operate with unmatched speed and control.
Trusted: Our Platform is trusted by some of the world’s largest financial institutions, tech giants, digital banks, and commerce disruptors to perform at scale. We meet the highest standards of Payment Card Industry, or PCI, compliance and provide a trusted environment for card issuing and payment processing with security, transparency, and real-time information.
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Our Products
Marqeta’s innovative products are developed with deep domain expertise and a customer-first mindset. At its core, our Platform offers three primary capabilities: Marqeta Issuing, Marqeta Processing, and Marqeta Applications to launch, scale, and manage card programs.
Marqeta Issuing
We enable our Customers to issue physical, virtual, and tokenized cards. With approximately 493 million cards issued through the Marqeta Platform as of December 31, 2021, across a deep and varied Customer base, we have significant industry experience supporting card programs of multiple types and sizes. We offer fulfillment services, enabling our Customers to optimize their card programs by managing users, fulfillment, and card transactions through the Marqeta Platform. We are also at the forefront of payments innovation, with features such as the provision of a tokenized card into digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.
We offer a number of core card issuing services and functionalities:
Custom card functionality: Our Issuing Bank relationships and direct integrations with the Card Networks enable our Customers to efficiently launch, manage, and grow card programs that are customized to their specific business needs without needing to build those complex relationships or integrations themselves. We provide industry-leading user experience while minimizing fraud.
Configure cards with open APIs: Customers can easily define card attributes for where and how a card is used. These use cases and restrictions include, among others, ATM, online, or point-of-sale use; ability to restrict or accept use in certain countries or currencies; and address or postal code acceptance.
Build, test, and launch cards: Developers can simultaneously create card products and set up funding sources, cardholders, and cards through simulations available in their own private and secure Marqeta sandbox, enabling them to test and validate their programs easily and quickly before launch.
Securely embed cards into apps: Customers using our Platform have the ability to securely embed sensitive card data into mobile apps using customizable widgets or the Marqeta JavaScript library; this has the added benefit of dramatically reducing the workload necessary to comply with PCI requirements.
Customize cards: Marqeta’s Customers control the design and feel of their physical and virtual cards, which helps our Customers establish strong brand identity for their business. Customers choosing physical cards can also customize security features, including magnetic stripe, near field communication, and EMV-chip enabled.
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Manage card programs: The Marqeta Platform allows Customers to manage card issuance over the entire card lifecycle. Through our dashboard, Customers can order, activate, set expiration, suspend, and terminate cards. They can also manage lost, stolen, and damaged cards via our APIs. Customers can also integrate Interactive Voice Response for card activation, personal identification number, or PIN, setting, balance inquiry, and lost or stolen card reporting into their own card programs.
We also partner with some of the world’s largest card issuers. For example, our card-issuing technology will enable J.P. Morgan to instantly provision commercial cards into digital wallets for commercial card customers, accelerating the issuance process and reducing the probability of fraud in each transaction.
Marqeta Processing
Our Platform can process transactions with control and speed for our Customers, leveraging certain of our core competencies:
Secure authentication: Marqeta’s modern Platform provides robust, secure authentication tools. A variety of authentication methods are available to authenticate the card user, including PIN, address verification, card verification value, 3D Secure and EMV chip.
Configurable spend controls: Customers can reduce fraud by limiting where and how their end users can transact. Through the Marqeta Platform, our Customers can deploy fully tailored spending limits by merchant, merchant category, merchant group, amount, user, user group, frequency of use, time of use, and start/end times, among many other inputs.
Just-in-Time Funding: Using Marqeta’s industry-first JIT Funding functionality, Customers can programmatically authorize and fund each transaction in real time. Utilizing this feature, each card maintains a zero-amount balance until the card is used and approved. Upon approval, Marqeta automatically moves funds from an identified funding source into the appropriate account.The following illustration reflects the workflow once a cardholder attempts to make a payment at a merchant using an account configured to use JIT Funding:
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Real-time notifications: Through our Platform, Customers can implement our unique webhooks or push notification capabilities to receive real-time updates as transactions are processed on the Marqeta Platform. Turning on these notifications empowers our Customers to provide real-time, meaningful messages to their end users. Our Platform also supports card events, dispute events, and transaction events. For example, cardholders will receive notifications on returns and refunds as they occur to help our Customers apply the right amount of credit to accounts in a timely manner.
Accelerates reconciliations: Our Platform saves our Customers both time and money. By injecting custom data fields into each transaction, Customers can optimize and accelerate reconciliations by matching the order and ledger system records automatically.
Marqeta Applications
Using the Marqeta Platform, Customers can leverage applications that cover the entire payments lifecycle, including the developer sandbox, card management, transaction monitoring, and case management. These applications help ensure their programs are as successful as possible.
Marqeta applications allow Customers to:
Utilize developer tools: Developers have access to Marqeta’s wealth of tools, including a private sandbox, APIs, software development kits, or SDKs, widgets, and documentation to customize, test, and issue their cards and programs. With multiple API endpoints, developers can configure spend controls, simulate transaction processing, and quickly roll out new features with confidence.
Streamline program administration: Our Platform is transforming how our Customers can approach program administration. We offer tools to manage program funds, monitor cardholder balances, report lost or stolen cards, and view a multitude of white-labeled reports, all through a single application.
Reduce and mitigate fraud: We offer unique functionality to help card issuers combat fraud. Using Marqeta’s powerful authorization and decisioning engine, Customers can configure rules using a variety of inputs that approve or decline transactions based on real-time and dynamic parameters. This along with our know-your-customer, 3D Secure, and dispute management services provide a multi-layer security framework, helping our Customers detect and prevent unauthorized, fraudulent activities, while empowering them to create frictionless experiences for their customers.
Manage cases and resolve disputes: Marqeta’s case management API endpoints help our Customers to optimize the entire dispute process. This includes submitting disputes, receiving statements, participating in arbitration, all while receiving live status updates via push notifications. Our holistic solution helps to simplify case management while enabling an optimized experience for the end user.
Simplify compliance and reporting: With our Platform, Customers can monitor and review reports for potential violations and leverage data and insights for compliance reporting such as anti-money-laundering and Bank Secrecy Act, or BSA, monitoring, as well as know-your-customer requirements. Our solutions are certified as compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI DSS, and 3DS, among others. Our bank-grade encryption safeguards payment card data, including personally identifiable information.
Analyze data intelligence: We dissect and analyze transaction data. Customers can monitor balances, authorizations, and settlements over time to track every aspect of their card program. Customers can see chargebacks, declined transactions, and card activities on a regular basis, while data can be reported on a daily, weekly, or monthly cadence.
Our Business Model
Our modern, cloud-based, open API Platform delivers card issuing and transaction processing services for global money movement, tailored to the needs of developers, technical product managers, and visionary entrepreneurs at innovative companies. As of December 31, 2021, there were approximately 122 million active cards on our Platform, up 115% from 57 million active cards on our Platform as of December 31, 2020, and during the year ended December 31, 2021, we processed approximately 2.7 billion transactions on our Platform across the globe, up 70% from the 1.6 billion transactions processed on our Platform during the year ended December 31, 2020. Active cards are defined as the number of transacting cards with one or more successful clearing events during the preceding twelve months.
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We employ a usage-based model, based on processing volume, that aligns our interests with those of our Customers. We derive the majority of our revenue from Interchange Fees generated by card transactions through our Platform. Additionally, we generate revenue from other processing services, including monthly platform access, ATM fees, fraud monitoring, and tokenization services.
Interchange Fees are transaction- and volume-based fees paid by the Acquiring Bank to the Issuing Bank that issued the payment card used to purchase goods or services from the merchant. In accordance with our agreements with Issuing Banks, we receive 100% of the Interchange Fees for processing our Customers’ card transactions. Under our Customer contracts, we typically share a portion of Interchange Fees with our Customers, referred to as “Revenue Share.” As Customers increase processing volumes on our Platform, they may earn an increased percentage of Revenue Share. Sharing an increased percentage of Interchange Fees with our Customers aligns our interests with our Customers’ growth and builds deeper customer relationships.
As we strive to democratize payments and simplify card issuing and transaction processing, our strategic partnerships and direct integrations with Issuing Banks and Card Networks are important to our customer value proposition. Greater processing volume also allows us to achieve better volume pricing with our Issuing Banks and Card Networks, which we can pass along to our Customers. This, in turn, can make our product offerings more competitive.
Our Platform enables new and existing Customers to create innovative and configurable card programs and to increase their processing volumes. Additionally, as we expand our use cases, product offerings, and global footprint, we help our Customers expand into new verticals, programs, markets, and geographies. We have experienced significant success with this strategy to date. We achieved year-over-year net revenue growth of 78% and a dollar-based net revenue retention of 175% for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Our Strengths
The following strengths and advantages power our business model:
Modern Card Issuing Trailblazer: Marqeta created modern card issuing. Our modern Platform offers multiple issuing and processing innovations, including open APIs, JIT Funding, and Tokenization as a Service, and supports prepaid, debit, and credit products. We continue to innovate on our Platform, and we believe that this innovation, coupled with our deep expertise, keeps us in a market-leading position.
Continuous Innovation: As we partner with our existing Customers to support their ambitious global projects and develop cutting-edge use cases for each vertical, we also attract new Customers seeking best-in-class solutions. The highly configurable Marqeta Platform is agile out of the box and at scale. We help our customers go to market with our developer-centric APIs, sandboxes, and SDKs, written in modern programming languages.
Enduring Customer Relationships: Our dollar-based net revenue retention was over 175% for the year ended December 31, 2021 and over 200% for each of the years ended December 31, 2020, and 2019, illustrating the strength and durability of our Customer relationships. Our Platform powers mission-critical experiences for our Customers, leading to strong relationships over time as we extend their reach both from a product and geographic perspective. We become technically integrated within their products and solutions, operationally integrated as Customers develop core processes around our tools and platform, and culturally integrated as our partnerships deepen over time. Indeed, our mutually beneficial contractual terms are designed to provide a win/win for both our Customers and us; as their businesses thrive, our net revenue grows.
People-centric Culture and Values: We believe our culture of customer centricity, innovation, teamwork, and clarity of mission is why Customers trust us with their mission critical payments needs. Our Customers consistently tell us that our ability to work at speed, simplify the complex, and envision their end users’ experience helps them focus on what they do best— building innovative products and serving their customers . We also believe our culture helps us hire and retain best-in-class talent, as we empower employees to do the best work of their lives.
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The aggregate effect of these strengths and advantages is a strong competitive moat, predicated on our scale, Customer relationships, and the technological complexities that we have managed to simplify over time, while remaining agile, extensible, and innovative. We believe it would require a significant commitment of time and resources for a potential competitor to imitate our Platform.
We also believe that we have and continue to build significant technical know-how and card issuing and transaction processing expertise so that potential competitors cannot easily replicate our business. We believe these structural advantages, and our culture and values driven business, should enable us to extend our lead over time.
Our Growth Strategy
Our market opportunity is tremendous, and we intend to expand our addressable market and increase our revenue by pursuing the following strategies:
Adding New Customers. We intend to solidify our reach in existing categories and expand to new use cases and industry verticals. Our sales teams focus on attracting an even greater number of commerce disruptors, digital banks, and tech giants. We also intend to expand our relationships with new large financial institutions to help them compete in the new digitized world through our industry-leading solutions. We intend to attract and engage new Customers through customer referrals from existing Customers, marketing campaigns, outbound sales calls, and key industry conferences and tradeshows. We will also look for opportunities to grow through strategic partnerships and acquisitions.
Expanding and Growing Our Relationships With Our Existing Customers. Our current Customers include some of today’s leading commerce disruptors, digital banks, tech giants, and large financial institutions. We participate in our Customers’ growth alongside them because as our Customers’ businesses scale and their processing volumes increase, so does our revenue.
Broadening Our Global Reach. As of December 31, 2021, we were certified by one or more of the global Card Networks to process transactions in 39 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific and intend to accelerate our international expansion in the future. Because our Customers employ digital models that transcend borders, we are constantly extending our Platform’s reach. This allows us to offer a single global Platform to all Customers, no matter where they originate or how they expand. With Marqeta, developers only have to integrate once to gain access to a global market and to take advantage of all of the tools our Platform offers for a global reach.
Expanding Our Ecosystem, Product Offering and Partnership Network. Our closely integrated relationships with our Customers and deep insight into our Customers’ transaction data allows us to anticipate our Customers’ product needs and emerging market opportunities. Our modern card issuing Platform and best-in-class APIs allow us to rapidly develop new products, features, and use cases to serve our current and future Customers. We will continue to invest in our Platform to create increased stability, greater flexibility, and data-driven decision-making, all within increasingly shorter timeframes. We plan to build new APIs to deliver for our Customers and expand our migration to the cloud to provide enhanced scalability, paving the way for data localization options and reducing our maintenance burden. We initially targeted card issuing through a modern and disruptive lens, and we believe we can leverage our Platform to replicate our success in other areas of the payments ecosystem. A robust ecosystem of partners is also crucial to our ability to embed our technology into a greater range of use cases. We intend to continue identifying and nurturing our relationships with Issuing Banks, Card Networks, and other vendors to continue building on our existing use cases.
Culture & Values
Our mission is to be the global standard for modern card issuing, empowering builders to bring the most innovative products to the world. Great missions are achieved by great teams, and at Marqeta, everything starts with our culture. A great culture attracts and retains great people who find their purpose in serving our Customers.
Our culture is built on the foundation of seven core values:
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We realized some time ago that words like “company” and “customer” are just another way to say “people.” Companies are collections of people who unite behind a common mission and then align behind values that bind them together. Each person on our team is called a Marqetan. On their first day, we share with each Marqetan our values. Key among these is “Everyone Belongs.” We respect, value, and include each other, demonstrating empathy and celebrating diversity.
As part of our onboarding process, we also ask each new employee an empowering question: “What is your superpower?” We believe everyone has a superpower. Whatever it is, we want that person to embrace it, share it, and celebrate all of our unique abilities, viewpoints, and personalities together as Marqetans. United, these superpowers allow us to be more than just the sum of the people who work at Marqeta. With 789 Marqetans as of December 31, 2021, we believe that each Marqetan brings their own unique superpower to the company. We strive to empower every Marqetan to do the best work of their lives.
Nothing is more powerful than a unified team of people focused on the results of the team over their individual success. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
We do what’s right for all of us, not one of us. We succeed together.
Customers are the people we seek to delight every day. Our Customers tell us that our ability to work at speed, cut through complexity, and always have their end users’ experience at heart helps them focus on what they do best – building innovative products and serving their customers .
Because of our value of Lead Innovation, we believe we are the first modern Platform to market with multiple issuing and processing innovations, including the first open APIs, JIT Funding, and Tokenization as a Service. Our modern card issuing Platform supports prepaid, debit, and credit products. We love to lean into the unknown and find the path forward.
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Success is measured in results. At our heart, we are developers who build for developers, and we have not forgotten our entrepreneurial roots. Customers have chosen to build and scale their businesses on our Platform because we understand that our Customers need to deliver for their customers.
We keep it simple and find a solution. We act like owners and deliver the best outcome for our Customers.
Quality is at the heart of everything we build. We are proud of the work we do and strive to improve it every day. When you provide high-quality products and do great work, people remember it and trust you.
Our purpose has never been more clear: pay it forward. We aspire to have a positive global impact by making complex payment infrastructure accessible and leveling the playing field for innovation and financial access across communities. Our celebration of diversity and community is critically important to our culture and why we are proud to be headquartered in Oakland. Our commitment to the people in the communities we serve is embodied in our value of Marqeta Cares:
We invest in corporate social responsibility. Our people, technology, and resources make a positive impact in our community, and we are responsible stewards of our environment.
We created Marqeta Cares, our social impact initiative, as our corporate giving program and to help select the charities we support. Marqeta Cares seeks to create inclusive communities and build pathways to economic prosperity. We do this by leveraging our financial and human capital to support nonprofit organizations that advance economic opportunity for under-resourced and under-served communities. We approved up to 400,000 shares of our common stock to be contributed to the Marqeta Cares program over ten years, beginning in 2020. Marqeta Cares will leverage these resources to make targeted and thoughtful donations where our equity and dollars can make a meaningful difference.
To help implement our Marqeta Cares goals, Marqeta has partnered with an experienced donor-advised fund, operated as a 501(c)(3) public charity, that will serve as the legal vehicle for implementing Marqeta Cares’ corporate philanthropic vision. In 2020 and 2021, that donor-advised fund made a number of financial grants to charities in the United States and the United Kingdom to advance economic opportunity for marginalized and underserved populations and generate positive impact for our communities, our environment, our Customers and our Company. In addition, we are partnering with Pledge 1%, an advisory non-profit organization that assists companies in donating to charitable causes. Marqeta is also proud of its emerging green initiatives, which include offering Customers the innovative choice to use recycled plastic cards and partnering with a plastic offset platform to remove ocean-bound plastic waste.
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Our Customers
Our modern card issuing Platform powers mission-critical experiences for our Customers, leading to strong relationships over time as we extend their reach both from a product and geographic perspective. We had over 200 Customers and over 160 Customers as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Currently, we provide solutions in the following verticals:
• Commerce Disruptors
◦ On-Demand Services
◦ Lending (e.g., BNPL financing)
◦ Expense Management
◦ Disbursements (e.g., insurance, incentives and rewards)
◦ Online Marketplaces (e.g., travel, eCommerce)
• Digital Banks (e.g., digital banking; cryptocurrency)
• Tech Giants
• Large Financial Institutions
Agreements with Large Customers
Block
On April 19, 2016, we entered into a master services agreement with Block, Inc., formerly known as Square, Inc., subsequently amended, which includes agreements that provide for the commercial terms of our relationship with Block. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, we have agreed to manage Block’s Cash App, Square Card, and Square Card Canada card issuing programs for Block. Under the agreement to manage these card programs, we agree to share with Block a portion of the net interchange revenue that we earn from processing the volume of these programs. The Revenue Share provisions include increased rates of Revenue Share when processing volumes reach specified volume tiers. Additionally, we generate revenue from other processing services under the agreement. In addition, on March 13, 2021, and as specified in our agreement with Block, we granted Block a warrant to purchase up to 1,100,000 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $0.01 per share, which is exercisable upon attaining certain milestones relating to Block’s creation of a specified percentage of new cardholders on our Platform each year over a three-year period. The current term of our agreement with Block for Cash App expires in March 2024, the current term of our agreements with Block for Square Card and Square Card Canada, respectively, expire in December 2024, and each agreement automatically renews thereafter for successive one-year periods, unless terminated earlier by either party. Either we or Block may terminate the master services agreement under certain specified circumstances, including upon a material breach. The agreement also provides for certain other terms, including representations and warranties of the parties, intellectual property rights, data ownership and security, limitations on liability, confidentiality and indemnification rights, and other covenants.
Our Relationships with Issuing Banks and Card Networks
Our contractual relationships with Issuing Banks and Card Networks contribute to Marqeta’s ability to create and manage customized card programs for our Customers.
We partner with Issuing Banks to provide services to Marqeta that include card issuance, Card Network sponsorship, and creating deposit accounts used to settle our Customers’ transactions. Our contracts with Issuing Banks entitle Marqeta to all of the Interchange Fees generated from our Customers’ card programs and obligate us to pay all Card Network fees associated with our Customers’ card transactions. Issuing Banks require Marqeta to comply with their requirements and those of the Card Networks necessary to sponsor the Customer’s card programs.
We provide all of our Customers issuer processor services, and, for most of our Customers, we also act as the program manager. As a program manager, we are responsible for ensuring compliance with the Issuing Bank’s requirements and Card Network rules and help create regulatory compliant card programs for our Customers.
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When our Customers engage us solely as an Issuer Processor, we process the authorization, settlement and reporting of transactions for these Customers but in such engagements we do not manage the relationships with the Issuing Banks and Card Networks.
We intend to expand and deepen our relationships with Issuing Banks and Card Networks and expect to see an increased demand for both our program manager and issuer processor services.
Agreements with Issuing Banks
While an Issuing Bank ultimately approves each card program, Marqeta is able to configure the program design, negotiate key program terms, and select the Issuing Bank. Marqeta actively “shops” the potential card program to various Issuing Banks to identify the most appropriate bank based on the Customer’s needs. Marqeta pays the Issuing Banks a fixed fee (either a fixed percentage of the transaction volume or a fixed fee per transaction) as compensation for the services they provide to Marqeta.
Sutton Bank
On April 1, 2016, we entered into a prepaid card program manager agreement with Sutton Bank. Under the terms of the agreement, as amended, Sutton Bank settles payment transactions for us and provides prepaid card and other related services to us, including the issuance of cards for approved card programs. The agreement provides that we pay Sutton Bank a fee based on a percentage of the value of transactions processed. Under this agreement we are entitled to receive 100% of the Interchange Fees for processing our Customers’ card transactions. Under certain circumstances, the agreement also requires us to pay termination fees, including fees and costs to Sutton Bank, if we terminate the agreement before the end of its term or any automatic renewal term. The current term of the agreement expires in 2028, after which it automatically renews on the same terms and conditions for a two-year renewal term, unless either party provides written notice of its intent not to renew at least 180 days prior to the expiration of the then-current term. Either we or Sutton Bank may terminate the agreement under certain specified circumstances, including if the other party commits a material breach that is not cured within 30 days.
Agreements with Card Networks
The Card Networks oversee their worldwide payment networks, through which debit, credit, and prepaid card payments are authorized, processed, and settled between an Issuing Bank and an Acquiring Bank. Card Networks also set the Interchange Fee rates that the Acquiring Bank routes through the Card Network to the Issuing Bank. We currently partner with a number of Card Networks, including Visa, Mastercard, and PULSE, which is part of the Discover Global Network, and a number of PIN networks, to process our Customers’ transactions on our Platform. Marqeta arranges for our Customers to use one or more of the available Card Networks, and we pay standard fees to Card Networks directly, or indirectly through reimbursement of these fees upon the settlement of card transactions by the Issuing Banks. Our contracts with the Card Networks also provide us with certain monetary incentives based on the volume of our Customers’ transactions processed through the respective Card Network. Additionally, we partner with Card Networks to develop our processing capabilities in international locations as we expand globally.
Our relationships with the Card Networks allow us to connect our Platform directly to the Card Networks, which allows for transaction authorization (or decline) messages to be sent electronically to and from our Platform. This connection provides for virtually instant notification of our Customers’ card transactions and allows for quick response to the authorization request. Once an authorization approval response has been sent by Marqeta to the Card Network (based on parameters established by the applicable Customer), the transaction is able to occur on the Card Network’s secure network.
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Mastercard
In 2020, we entered into a strategic relationship agreement with Mastercard. We have also entered into a number of subsequent arrangements with Mastercard, including certain brand agreements. Under these agreements, as amended, we have agreed to cooperate with Mastercard on a number of initiatives, including international expansion, product, marketing and business development collaboration. The contracts provide Marqeta with tiered incentives based on the processing volume of our Customers’ transactions routed through Mastercard and its affiliated networks. The current term of the strategic relationship agreement expires in 2028 or at an earlier date if Marqeta achieves a certain processing volume milestone through the Mastercard network. Either party may terminate the agreements under specified circumstances, including upon a material breach that remains uncured for a specified period of time.
Visa
In 2017, we entered into a strategic alliance framework agreement with Visa, subsequently amended. We have also entered into a number of subsequent arrangements with Visa, as governed by the strategic alliance framework agreement, including a service evaluation agreement and certain brand agreements. Under these agreements, we have agreed to cooperate with Visa on a number of initiatives, including international expansion, product, marketing and business development collaboration. The contracts provide Marqeta with tiered incentives based on the processing volume of our Customers’ transactions routed through Visa and its affiliated networks. The current term of the strategic alliance framework agreement expires in 2022 and automatically renews annually thereafter. Either party may terminate the agreements under specified circumstances, including upon a material breach that remains uncured for a specified period of time. Visa may also elect to terminate the agreements prior to the natural expiration of the then-current term due to our failure to meet certain performance requirements.
Pulse Network
In 2013, we entered into a direct processor agreement with Pulse Network LLC, or Pulse, subsequently amended. The contract provides Marqeta with tiered incentives based on the processing volume of our Customers’ transactions routed through Pulse and its affiliated networks. The contract is currently under a renewal term, which automatically renews annually, unless either party provides written notice of its intent not to renew. Either party may terminate the agreement under specified circumstances, including upon a material breach that remains uncured for a specified period of time.
Our Competitors
We compete in a large and evolving market. We believe that the principal competitive factors in our market include:
• industry expertise;
• platform and product features and functionality;
• ability to build new technology and keep pace with innovation;
• scalability;
• extensibility;
• product pricing;
• security and reliability;
• brand recognition and reputation;
• agility; and
• speed to market.
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Our competitors fall into three primary categories:
• Providers with legacy technology platforms, including Global Payments (TSYS), Fiserv, and FIS:
We believe we offer a more agile and configurable solution that is faster to market than the traditional providers. We believe that, in general, legacy solutions are more rigid and are slower to both implement and innovate. Legacy platforms are often oriented to serve large financial institutions with standard product offerings. In contrast, the Marqeta Platform supports a range of digitally enabled use cases to serve the evolving card issuing marketplace.
• Vertical-focused providers, including Wex and Comdata:
While we also compete with providers focused on a certain vertical, we believe that our modern card issuing Platform’s depth and breadth offer a better and more complete solution for innovators. From its initial inception, our Platform was built to be horizontal, making it more configurable and extensible for a variety of emerging use cases and verticals. Furthermore, our experience in one vertical often informs similar use cases in other verticals, helping us bring new features to market faster.
• Emerging providers, including Adyen and Stripe:
Our Customers tell us that industry expertise is the number one reason for selecting an Issuer Processor. Marqeta has a track record of successful innovation. Emerging providers generally do not have the same demonstrated track record in card issuing. In addition, emerging providers that are also Acquirer Processors as their core business, are required to dedicate both time and capital to non-core parts of their business to serve the card issuing market. Overall, emerging providers generally have different go-to-market strategies and less expansive technological capabilities.
We have a deep history of card issuing expertise, enabling us to achieve technical and operating leverage that we believe potential competitors are unable to replicate. However, some of our competitors have greater financial and operating resources. Moreover, as we expand the scope of our Platform, we may face additional competition. See the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Our Business and Industry—We participate in markets that are competitive and continuously evolving, and if we do not compete effectively with established companies and new market entrants, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected.”
Intellectual Property
We believe that our intellectual property rights are valuable and important to our business. We rely on a combination of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, license agreements, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements, employee disclosure and invention assignment agreements, as well as other legal and contractual rights, to establish and protect our proprietary rights. Though we rely in part upon these legal and contractual protections, we believe that factors such as the skills and ingenuity of our employees, the functionality and infrastructure of our Platform and our business, and frequent enhancements to and expansions of our Platform are more important contributors to our success.
We have a patent program designed to cover various aspects of our business in the United States and abroad. These patents and patent applications are intended to protect our proprietary inventions relevant to our business. We continually review our development efforts to assess the existence and patentability of new intellectual property.
We have an ongoing trademark and service mark registration program pursuant to which we register our brand names and product names, taglines, and logos in the United States and internationally to the extent we determine appropriate and cost-effective. We also have registered domain names for websites that we use in our business, such as www.marqeta.com and other similar variations.
In addition, we seek to protect our intellectual property rights by requiring our employees and independent contractors involved in development of intellectual property on our behalf to enter into agreements acknowledging that all works or other intellectual property generated or conceived by them on our behalf are our property, and assigning to us any rights, including intellectual property rights, that they may claim or otherwise have in those works or property, to the extent allowable under applicable law.
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We intend to pursue additional intellectual property protection to the extent we believe it would be beneficial and cost effective. Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights, they may not be respected in the future or may be invalidated, circumvented, or challenged. In addition, the laws of various foreign countries where we operate may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as laws in the United States. We expect that infringement claims may increase as the number of products and competitors in our market increase. In addition, to the extent that we gain greater visibility and market exposure as a public company, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims from third parties. Any third-party intellectual property claims against us could significantly increase our expenses and could have a significant and negative impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
From time to time, we also incorporate certain intellectual property licensed from third parties, including under certain open source licenses. Even if any such third-party technology did not continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, we believe that alternative technologies would be available as needed in every case.
Sales and Marketing
Our marketing and business development teams operate under one, closely aligned go-to-market umbrella at Marqeta. Our go-to-market function is responsible for how we position ourselves within the industry, growing awareness and adoption of our Platform, accelerating Customer acquisition, onboarding Customers, and setting them up for success. We deploy a range of marketing strategies to drive brand awareness and adoption, including public relations, advertising campaigns, and generating leads and opportunities through direct marketing (online and offline). Our sales development representatives are part of our marketing team and make sure we create, influence and mature the right opportunities from our marketing activity, ranging from tailored content to high touch activities such as leading industry trade shows and events.
Our business development teams, incorporating both strategic, enterprise, and emerging sales units as well as our partnerships team, employ strategies specific to the industry, vertical, use-case and Customer, to convert interest into Customers, capture market share and drive revenue. Our thoughtful, multi-stage engagement process sets the stage for enduring enterprise partnerships with our Customers. We complement these marketing, business development, and sales activities with a focus on Customer onboarding, experience, and success.
We believe that highly responsive and effective support and education are an extension of our brand and are core to ensuring we’re reducing time to revenue when signing a new customer and building and maintaining trust. We firmly believe in the importance of partnering with our Customers, and this is made possible by close cooperation between Customers and our Customer success and delivery operations and bank partnership team. This enables us to launch new card programs as quickly as possible, reacting quickly to Customer needs and fostering collaboration on future product innovation.
Research and Development
Our research and development efforts focus on building enterprise-grade product and service capabilities for our Customers. Technical direction is derived from our understanding of the payments ecosystem and our partners, the evolving opportunity and needs of our Customer base, and the developer community. This focus enables the development of a robust, global platform to support a wide array of products, services, and use cases. Our design, product, engineering, and Customer success teams collaborate to connect our Customers to our Issuing Banks and Card Networks. Our technical operations team also works to ensure the successful deployment and monitoring of our Platform. Software development is primarily executed by our team of professionals across design, product management, and engineering disciplines. We intend to continue to invest in our research and development capabilities to extend our Platform.
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Government Regulation
We are subject, directly, or indirectly through our relationships with our Issuing Banks, Customers, or Card Networks, to a number of U.S. federal and state and foreign laws and regulations that involve matters central to our business. These laws and regulations involve privacy, data protection, information security, intellectual property, competition, and other subjects.
Many of the laws and regulations that we are subject to are still evolving and being tested in courts and could be interpreted in ways that could harm our business. In addition, the application and interpretation of these laws and regulations often are uncertain, particularly in the new and rapidly evolving industry that we operate in. Further, these laws and regulations are sometimes ambiguous or inconsistent, and the extent they apply to us is at times unclear. As global laws and regulations have continued to develop and evolve rapidly, it is possible that we may not be, or may not have been, compliant with each such applicable law or regulation or that we may in the future be required to obtain licenses and registrations. Any actual or alleged failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations may result in, among other things, private litigation, regulatory investigations and enforcement actions, sanctions, civil and criminal liability and constraints on our ability to continue to operate.
As we expand our geographical reach and our offerings, we may become subject to additional regulations, in the United States and internationally.
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, or the Dodd-Frank Act, effected comprehensive revisions to a wide array of federal laws governing financial institutions, financial services and financial markets. Among its most notable provisions is the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, which is charged with regulating consumer financial products or services and which assumes much of the rulemaking authority under federal laws affecting the extension of credit. In addition to rulemaking authority over several enumerated federal consumer financial protection laws, the CFPB is authorized to issue rules prohibiting unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices by persons offering consumer financial products or services and their service providers and has authority to enforce these consumer financial protection laws and CFPB rules. The CFPB has not defined what is a consumer financial product or service but has indicated informally that, in some instances, small businesses may be covered under consumer protection.
Due to our relationships with Issuing Banks and Card Networks, we may be subject to indirect supervision and examination by the CFPB in connection with our Platform and certain of our products and services. CFPB rules, examinations, and enforcement actions may require us to adjust our activities and may increase our compliance costs.
In addition, the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act provides that Interchange Fees that an Issuing Bank or Card Network receives or charges for debit transactions are regulated by the Federal Reserve and must be “reasonable and proportional” to the cost incurred by the card issuer in authorizing, clearing, and settling the transaction. Card Network fees may not be used directly or indirectly to compensate Issuing Banks in circumvention of the interchange transaction fee restrictions. While we only contract with Issuing Banks who are exempt from the Durbin Amendment, we remain sensitive to changes in the regulation of Interchange Fees. The implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act is ongoing, and as a result, its overall impact remains unclear. Its provisions, however, are sufficiently far reaching that it is possible that we could be further directly or indirectly impacted.
Privacy, Data Protection and Information Security Regulations
We provide services that are subject to various state, federal and foreign laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and information security, including, among others, the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act, the General Data Protection Regulation, and the California Consumer Protection Act. Accordingly, we publish our privacy policies and terms of service, which describe our practices concerning the use, transmission, and disclosure of certain information. For additional information about laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and information security, see the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Regulation—Regulations and industry standards related to privacy and data protection could adversely affect our ability to effectively provide our services.”
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Additionally, our Platform hosts, transmits, processes, and stores payment card data and is therefore required to comply with PCI DSS. As a result, we are subject to PCI audits and must comply with related security requirements. See the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Our Business and Industry—Our business relies on our relationships with Issuing Banks and Card Networks, and if we are unable to maintain these relationships, our business may be adversely affected. Further, any changes to the rules or practices set by Card Networks, including changes in Interchange Fees, could adversely affect our business.”
Association and Card Network Rules
Our Issuing Banks must comply with the bylaws, regulations, and requirements that are set forth by the Card Networks, including PCI DSS and other applicable data-security program requirements. In providing services through our Platform, we are also subject to such requirements. To provide payment processing services, we are certified and registered with certain Card Networks as a processor for member institutions. As such, we are subject to applicable card association, Card Network and national scheme rules that could subject us to fines or penalties for certain acts or omissions. The Card Networks routinely update and modify their requirements and we, in turn, must work to comply with such updates to continue processing transactions on their networks.
Further, we are subject to network operating rules promulgated by the National Automated Clearing House Association relating to payment transactions processed on our Platform using the Automated Clearing House Network and to various federal and state laws regarding such operations.
Prepaid Card Regulations
The prepaid card programs that we manage for our Customers are subject to various federal and state laws and regulations, including the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 and the Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation E, which impose requirements on general-use prepaid cards, store gift cards and electronic gift certificates. The CFPB also regulates prepaid accounts, including certain accounts that are capable of being loaded with funds and whose primary function is to conduct transactions with multiple, unaffiliated merchants, at ATMs, or for person-to-person transfers. These regulations include, among other things, disclosure of fees to the consumer prior to the creation of a prepaid account; liability limits and error-resolution requirements; regulation of prepaid accounts with overdraft and credit features; and the submission of prepaid account agreements to the CFPB and the publication of such agreements to the general public.
These laws and regulations are evolving, unclear, and sometimes inconsistent and subject to judicial and regulatory challenge and interpretation, and therefore the extent these laws and rules apply to, and impact, us is in flux. The extensive nature of these regulations may result in additional compliance obligations and expense for our business.
Anti-Money Laundering
Although we are not a “money services business” or otherwise subject to anti-money laundering registration requirements under U.S. federal or state law, we are subject to certain anti-money laundering laws and regulations in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and other jurisdictions. In the United States, the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, which is also known as the BSA, and which was amended by the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, contains a variety of provisions aimed at fighting terrorism and money laundering. Among other things, the BSA and implementing regulations issued by the U.S. Treasury Department require certain financial institutions to establish anti-money laundering programs, to not engage in terrorist financing, to report suspicious activity and to maintain a number of related records.
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Due to our relationships with Issuing Banks that are directly regulated for anti-money laundering purposes, we have implemented an anti-money laundering program designed to prevent our Platform from being used to facilitate money laundering, terrorist financing and other illicit activity. When providing program management services, we ensure that our anti-money laundering program complies with the requirements of our Issuing Banks. Our programs are also designed to prevent our Platform from being used to facilitate activity in violation of applicable sanctions laws and regulations, including conducting business in specified countries or with designated persons or entities, including those on lists promulgated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls and equivalent foreign authorities. Our anti-money laundering compliance program includes policies, procedures, reporting protocols and internal controls, including the designation of a bank secrecy act officer in the U.S. and the equivalent in other jurisdictions, and it is designed to assist in managing risk associated with money laundering and terrorist financing.
Anti-Bribery Laws
We are subject to anti-corruption and anti-bribery and similar laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or the FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the U.K. Bribery Act 2010, and other anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in countries where we conduct activities. The FCPA and other applicable anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws prohibit companies and their employees and agents from promising, authorizing, making, or offering improper payments or other benefits to government officials and others in the private sector to influence official action, direct business to any person, gain any improper advantage, or obtain or retain business.
The FCPA includes anti-bribery and accounting provisions enforced by the Department of Justice and SEC. The statute has a broad reach, covering all U.S. companies and citizens doing business abroad, among others, and defining a foreign official to include not only those holding public office but also local citizens affiliated with foreign government-run or -owned organizations. The statute also requires maintenance of appropriate books and records and maintenance of adequate internal controls.
Other
We are subject to examination by our Issuing Banks’ regulators and must comply with certain regulations to which our sponsor banks are subject, as applicable. For instance, due to our relationships with certain Issuing Banks and certain Customers, we may be subject to indirect supervision and examination by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, state banking regulators (such as the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in connection with our Platform and certain of our products and services. We are also subject to audit by certain Issuing Banks. Further, certain of our Customers are financial institutions or non-bank regulated entities and, as a result, we may be indirectly subject to examination and obligated to assist those Customers in complying with certain regulations to which they are subject or with responses to audits of such Customers.
International Regulation
The conduct of our business and the use of our products and services outside the United States are subject to various foreign laws and regulations administered by government entities and agencies in the countries and territories where we operate and where our Customers and their cardholders use our products and services. For instance, we are subject to processing fee and transaction fee regulation where our cards are used and may in the future be subject to Interchange Fee regulations in other countries where our cards are used.
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Security, Privacy, and Data Protection
Trust is important for our relationship with our Customers, and we take significant measures to protect the privacy and security of their data and the data of their cardholders.
Security
We devote considerable resources to our information security program, which is dedicated to ensuring the highest confidence in our custodianship of the data of our Customers. Our security program is aligned to the ISO 27000 standards and is regularly audited and assessed by third parties. In addition, our security program has achieved several internationally-recognized certifications and industry standard audited attestations.
Our security program focuses on preserving the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the personal data and other confidential information of our Customers and our Customers’ cardholders. To this end, our team of security professionals, working in partnership with peers across our company, work to identify and mitigate risks, implement best practices, and continue to evaluate ways to improve our information security. These steps include data encryption in transit and at rest, network security, classifying and inventorying data, limiting and authorizing access controls, and multi-factor authentication for access to systems with data. We also employ regular system monitoring, logging, and alerting to retain and analyze the security state of our corporate and production infrastructure. In addition, we take steps to help ensure that appropriate security measures are maintained by the third-party vendors we use, including by conducting security reviews and audits.
Privacy and Data Protection
The privacy of our Customers’ data and our Customers’ cardholders’ data is important to our continued growth and success. Privacy is a shared responsibility among all our employees. We also have a privacy team that builds and executes on our privacy program, including support for data protection and privacy-related requests.
We are committed to complying with applicable privacy and data protection laws. We monitor guidance from industry and regulatory bodies and update our Platform and contractual commitments accordingly.
We maintain a privacy policy that describes how we collect, use, and share personal information relating to our Customers and we implement appropriate contractual provisions relating to our processing of cardholders’ personal information.
Our Employees and Human Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2021, we had a total of 789 employees, and 193 contractors. We supplement our workforce with contractors and consultants. To our knowledge, none of our employees is represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We have not experienced any work stoppages, and we consider our relations with our employees to be good.
Our human capital resources objectives include, as applicable, identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and new employees. We believe our culture helps us hire and retain best-in-class talent, as we empower employees to do the best work of their lives. Marqeta was named one of Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work in 2022. This list celebrates the employees’ choice for the top companies to work for and is determined solely based on employee feedback provided on Glassdoor. We were ranked highest for our culture and values, career opportunities available, and diversity and inclusion.
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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Marqeta is proud of its Oakland roots and strives to build a global team as diverse as the markets it serves. A key focus of our human capital management approach is our commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. At Marqeta, we believe that creating a truly inclusive workplace means investing in company-wide programs, policies, and practices centered on equity. We strive to build a culture where everyone belongs and is empowered to bring their authentic selves to work every day, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability, background or any other human qualifier. Of our new hires in 2021 who voluntarily disclosed their gender and race/ethnicity information, 44% identified as female and 11% identified as Black or Latinx. It is our diverse perspectives that help us collaborate, innovate, and drive success within our teams and for the customers and communities we serve.
Marqeta's Employee Resource Groups, or ERGs, along with our Diversity Council and other culture coalitions form a network of internal groups focused on elevating underrepresented voices in tech and celebrating the wide range of communities and cultures that span our employee base. We currently have twelve ERGs, with over half of our employees participating in at least one. Marqeta’s core company value that “Everyone Belongs” serves as a constant reminder of how critical this work is to our identity as a company.
Compensation, Benefits, and Wellness
We believe we offer a robust, competitive compensation and benefits package that supports our employees’ overall health and financial wellness. To ensure alignment with our short- and long-term objectives, our compensation programs include base pay, and cash and equity incentives. The principal purposes of our equity incentive plans are to attract, retain and reward personnel through the granting of share-based compensation awards which allows us to align employees’ interests with our shareholders and to allow our employees to share in increases in the value of our equity. We also offer a wide array of in-demand benefits and perks to our global workforce, including comprehensive health and welfare benefits, flexible time-off, and various family and medical leave benefits.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented significant changes that we determined were in the best interest of our employees and the communities in which we operate. These include having the vast majority of our employees continue to work from home, and implementing additional safety measures for employees conducting critical on-site work. The future of work at Marqeta is flexible, with in-office, hybrid, and remote working options. We have also added additional company-wide paid days off to help employees balance their work and life responsibilities. We believe these flexible policies will help us source, connect, and hire talent in more locations, as well as retain talent that may want or need to relocate.
Corporate Information
We were incorporated in 2010 under the name Marqeta, Inc. as a Delaware corporation. We completed our initial public offering in June 2021 and our Class A common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “MQ.” Our principal executive offices are located at 180 Grand Avenue, 6th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612, and our telephone number is (888) 462-7738.
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Available Information
Our website is located at www.marqeta.com, and our investor relations website is located at www.investors.marqeta.com. Copies of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, are available, free of charge, on our investor relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after we file such material electronically with or furnish it to the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. The SEC also maintains a website that contains our SEC filings. The address of the site is www.sec.gov. We use our www.investors.marqeta.com and www.marqeta.com websites, as well as our blog posts, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts, our twitter feed (@Marqeta), our Instagram page (@lifeatmarqeta), our Facebook page, and our LinkedIn page, as a means of disclosing material nonpublic information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. The contents of our websites are not intended to be incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.
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