Forbes
Oakland-based fintech startup Marqeta has raised $150 million in new funding from a single investor at a $4.3 billion valuation. It’s a steep rise from the $1.9 billion it fetched in March 2019. Marqeta declined to comment on the investor’s name, but a person familiar with the matter says it’s Capital Group ACGL, the Los Angeles investment firm that runs American Funds and has $1.7 trillion in assets under management. (Capital Group declined to comment.)
Since the coronavirus started sweeping the U.S. in February, few private companies have seen their valuations surge. Payments giant Stripe inched up from $35 billion in September 2019 to $36 billion in April 2020. Credit card startup Brex saw only a slight increase in its prior $2.6 billion valuation when it raised money earlier this month. Public companies have struggled—the S&P 500 is down 10% from its February 19 peak.
Marqeta is bucking the trend with its payments software. For companies that issue debit cards to workers or customers, Marqeta’s technology gives them more control over which transactions are approved. For instance, Instacart uses Marqeta to restrict which items its delivery people can buy, helping prevent fraud.
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