Marqeta to acquire fintech Power Finance in $275m deal

Global card issuing platform Marqeta has agreed to buy credit card program management platform Power Finance, for a purchase price of $223 million in cash.

An additional $52 million in cash will be paid by Marqeta subject to a milestone that is expected to be achieved within the next 12 months, taking the total value of the deal to $275 million.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Power Finance CEO Randy Fernando will lead product management for the Marqeta credit card platform.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Power Finance, which offers credit card program management services for companies creating new credit card programs, was founded in early 2021 by Fernando and chief financial officer Andrew Dust.

It counts Anthemis, Fin Capital, CRV, Dash Fund and Restive Ventures among its investors.

Marqeta said the acquisition – which is its first – will add credit card program management capabilities to its card issuing platform.

With more than $4 trillion in card spend on credit cards in the US each year, Marqeta said the deal also addresses a large market opportunity.

Incoming Marqeta CEO Simon Khalaf said: “We already see considerable demand for differentiated credit products from companies looking to innovate in this space who are held back by the constraints of legacy technology.

“We thoroughly examined possible acquisitions to more quickly establish Marqeta’s leadership in the modern credit space. It became clear to us that Power would strengthen Marqeta’s platform with a best-in-class tech stack for credit card program management.”

Fernando added: “At Power, we built a full-stack, cloud-native credit card issuance platform, and by becoming a part of Marqeta we have the ability now to bring this innovation to a much larger market at global scale.”