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Marqeta helps companies launch and run card programs without building the processing technology themselves. Customers connect their software to its cloud platform to issue cards, control spending and process payments. Marqeta can also arrange issuing-bank and card-network relationships and handle tasks such as disputes and card delivery. Partner banks issue the cards and settle payments.
Most revenue comes from these platform services. Customers pay processing fees tied to transaction counts or payment volume. For programs where Marqeta manages the issuing-bank relationship, it also receives interchange—the fee the merchant’s bank pays the issuing bank when a card is used—and shares that income with customers. Marqeta pays bank and network fees, so its earnings depend on both transaction activity and the terms of each program.
Block is its largest customer and supplies a substantial share of revenue through programs including Cash App and Square Debit Card. Sutton Bank settles most of the payment volume processed through Marqeta, making it a key operating partner. The business depends on customers continuing to route transactions through the platform and on banks and networks supporting their programs. Bank requirements and card-network rules constrain how programs operate, while interchange regulation can limit the fees Marqeta receives.
The risk section is the longest, dullest part of the filing. This keeps only what can really hurt you: where it hits, how hard, when it plays out.
Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.
Beyond this list, watch Sutton Bank, Marqeta’s privately held issuing partner that settled 64% of its 2025 processing volume, and Galileo, a modern issuer-processing rival.
Marqeta depends heavily on Block: it processes cards for Block’s Cash App and Square businesses, and Block supplied 45% of its 2025 net revenue. Watch spending on those cards, which feeds Marqeta’s processing business, rather than Block’s broader bitcoin revenue.
Fiserv competes with Marqeta for recurring contracts to handle card transactions for issuers, charging mainly by account or transaction. Its processing-and-services business is the part to watch for competition over the customers and fees Marqeta needs to grow.
FIS, Fidelity National Information Services, competes with Marqeta to handle card transactions for financial institutions, which pay it through recurring technology and processing contracts. Watch its Banking Solutions business, where multi-year processing agreements matter more to this rivalry than its Capital Markets software.
WEX competes with Marqeta for businesses that want payments built into their own systems and commercial card programs. Watch WEX’s Corporate Payments business, which serves business-to-business payments, rather than its fleet or employee-benefits operations.
EVERTEC competes with Marqeta to process card transactions and support card programs for financial institutions and fintechs, with its business concentrated in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its issuer-processing and card-program business in those markets is the clearest place to watch this rivalry, rather than its services helping merchants accept payments.
Marqeta uses Visa’s network to carry payments on cards it powers, but Visa also competes to handle issuers’ transactions through Visa DPS. Watch network-fee and rebate terms: when Marqeta arranges network access for customers, higher network fees reduce its gross margin.
Q2 Holdings Inc competes with Marqeta through Helix, which helps fintechs offer banking and payment programs, although Q2 mainly sells digital banking software to financial institutions. Helix’s usage-based revenue is the closer read on this competition than Q2’s broader digital banking subscriptions.
Card-payment growth matters to both Mastercard and Marqeta: Mastercard earns from routing payments between banks, while customers pay Marqeta to process transactions on the issuing side. Watch Mastercard’s consumer debit, prepaid and commercial card spending as a read on demand across card types Marqeta supports, not as a measure of Marqeta’s own volume.
Expensify relies on Marqeta to run the corporate card programs within its expense-management platform, giving Marqeta exposure to business card spending. Watch Expensify’s updated card program: revenue from fees paid by merchants’ banks to the issuing bank—interchange—rose from $9.2 million in 2024 to $21.3 million in 2025, though that is Expensify’s revenue, not Marqeta’s.
Orion Digital Corp.’s Carta competes directly with Marqeta to help customers approve card transactions and manage card programs through hosted software interfaces, or APIs. Watch Carta’s payment-processing offering rather than Orion’s total revenue: it represents a minority of disclosed revenue, alongside wealth and Canadian consumer lending.
VISA Inc. earningsV
Visa's report can offer clues about network fees and rebates, which affect Marqeta's gross margin when it arranges network access for customers.
Look for Visa's disclosures or commentary on network fees and rebates, and consider whether rebates offset fee pressure. Rising fees without offsetting rebates would weigh on gross profit from Marqeta's network-access programs; rebates that offset the pressure would ease that cost burden. Visa's report does not reveal Marqeta's negotiated rates, so it signals the direction of cost pressure, not its exact size.
Mastercard Incorporated earningsMA
Mastercard's debit, prepaid, and commercial card spending will show whether demand is strengthening across card types that Marqeta serves.
Read Mastercard's debit, prepaid, and commercial card spending trends together. Growth across these card types would point to broader demand support for the kinds of programs Marqeta serves; weakening spending would mean less of a tailwind. Mastercard's figures are not Marqeta's processing volume, so the conclusion is whether the wider card-spending backdrop is helping or hurting demand around its business.
Marqeta, Inc. earningsThis company
Marqeta earns from processing card transactions, and this report will show whether volume growth is translating into platform revenue and gross profit.
Read total processing volume alongside net platform services revenue and gross margin. If volume, revenue, and gross profit rise together, growth is adding revenue and profit; if volume rises but revenue or gross profit lags, a greater share of lower-fee programs or higher network and issuing-bank costs may be absorbing the gain. The conclusion is whether Marqeta is converting more transactions into more net revenue and gross profit.
Fiserv, Inc. earningsFISV
Fiserv's processing-and-services business will show how established processors are faring in issuer transaction work that competes with Marqeta.
Watch Fiserv's processing-and-services results and any commentary on transaction processing for issuers. Strong growth would suggest established processors are still expanding or holding issuer business, keeping competitive pressure on Marqeta; weaker results would mean less evidence of that pressure, not proof that customers are moving to Marqeta. The takeaway is whether incumbents have momentum, not whether Marqeta has won contracts.
Block, Inc. earningsXYZ
Block generated 45% of Marqeta's net revenue in 2025, so spending on its Cash App and Square cards will show whether demand from this major customer is holding up.
Focus on Block's Cash App and Square card spending, not its bitcoin business. Higher card spending would support Marqeta's processing activity for Block; weaker spending would put pressure on transaction revenue from this major customer. Block's figures are not Marqeta's volume or revenue, because their processing and revenue-sharing arrangements also matter. The takeaway is whether card demand from this large customer is strengthening or weakening.
