Visa and Marqeta offer Fintechs a Path to Growth in the World’s Fastest Growing Digital Payments Landscape

Marqeta expansion radically simplifies the process of launching digital card programs across 10 markets in Asia Pacific

Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, and Marqeta, the modern card issuing platform, today announced a platform collaboration intended to ease global expansion for multi-national card programs. The project plans to provide a streamlined developer-friendly path for Visa issuers to build, test and launch digital-first card programs in 10 Asia Pacific markets. Asia Pacific is home to 4.3 billion people, and with digital payments expected to increase in the region by $23 trillion over the next decade, it is the world’s fastest growing digital payments landscape.

Working with Marqeta and Visa, partners can open a laptop to access Marqeta’s existing sand-box and publicly available APIs. Brands that enter into a commercial partnership with Visa can create new issuing programs and can rapidly build and test consumer payment applications in multiple markets on the Marqeta platform.

Visa and Marqeta’s combined offering is designed to provide a solution for innovators to benefit from the following:

• Rapidly build new payment applications: Developers will be able to begin testing products in Marqeta’s live sandbox.
• Test and learn UI/UX: The solution is intended to allow partners to work on the user interface and experience to trial all kinds of creative payment solutions, while also working with the Marqeta issuing API and developer sandbox to set up payment processing.
• Simplify and accelerate international expansion: The solution is designed to enable partners to go live across multiple markets quickly, prioritizing speed, streamlining the burden of launching and scaling new card programs.

“Multinational technology companies and fintechs interested in expanding into Asia have a way to quickly test and learn in new markets. If you’re a startup based in Asia, you have access to world-class developer tools,” said Matt Dill, Visa’s global head of strategic partnerships and venture.

The Asia Pacific region has a burgeoning payments ecosystem populated by companies ranging in size from venture-funded start-ups to big tech platforms. Visa research tracks 90 active mobile wallet programs across the region, more than 150 active or pending digital banking licenses, and several industry leading alternative credit / installment programs.  Digital first card processors, like Marqeta, power new mobile or application based payment experiences and extend the reach and/or utility of Visa products into new segments and new consumer experiences.

The Marqeta platform has been certified Visa Ready in 10 Asia Pacific markets, including Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

“Bringing Marqeta and Visa technology together like this in Asia-Pacific is creating an entirely new product proposition, at a scale that hasn’t been done before. The possibilities are massive, helping digital payments innovators scale faster in the world’s most rapidly evolving ecosystem” said Jason Gardner, founder and CEO at Marqeta. “We’re excited to be working with Visa in Asia-Pacific on a forward thinking application of our technology, and see this as a major step in expanding Marqeta’s global footprint as well as helping our existing customer base grow into new regions.”