Marqeta, which reported a $53 million Q3 net loss in November, says the deal will provide it with a modern tech stack for credit card programme management.

The acquisition will combine Power’s next generation rewards engine with Marqeta’s own rewards innovations, and add in Power’s data science toolbox and ability to embed experiences inside existing mobile and web applications.

"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,” says Simon Khalaf, incoming CEO at Marqeta. “We thoroughly examined possible acquisitions to more quickly establish Marqeta’s leadership in the modern credit space.”

Power was founded in early 2021 by fintech veterans CEO Randy Fernando and CFO Andrew Dust. The company has raised $16.1 million since its inception in 2021 from a roster of investors including Anthemis, Fin Capital, CRV, Dash Fund and Restive Ventures.

As part of this acquisition, Power Finance CEO Randy Fernando will now lead the product management of Marqeta’s credit card platform.

Says Fernando: “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.”

The purchase price consists of $223 million in cash, approximately one-third of which is payable over a two-year period subject to certain conditions, plus $52 million in cash subject to a milestone that is expected to be achieved within the next 12 months.

The deal is expected to close this quarter.