Card issuer Marqeta will acquire cloud-native credit card program management platform Power Finance in a $275 million all-cash deal expected to close in the first quarter, the company said Monday.
The acquisition — Marqeta’s first — comes a day before Simon Khalaf, previously the company’s chief product officer, takes the reins as Marqeta’s CEO. The company announced that move Thursday.
“We’re thrilled to welcome the Power team and product to Marqeta,” Khalaf said Monday. “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.”
Power Finance was founded in 2021 by CEO Randy Fernando and CFO Andrew Dust. Fernando will join Marqeta with the acquisition, leading product management of the company’s credit card platform.
Roughly $52 million of the purchase price is subject to an unspecified milestone within the next 12 months, Marqeta said. One-third of the remaining $223 million is payable over two years, subject to certain conditions.
“We thoroughly examined possible acquisitions to more quickly establish Marqeta’s leadership in the modern credit space,” Khalaf said. “It became clear to us that Power would strengthen Marqeta’s platform with a best-in-class tech stack for credit card program management.”
Outgoing CEO Jason Gardner will transition to the role of executive chairman Jan. 31 as planned.
“I’m humbled by the opportunity to build upon Jason’s vision for modern card issuing and continue to redefine what cards can do for leading innovators globally,” Khalaf said Thursday. “I believe we have the recipe in place to unlock the next level of growth and scale for Marqeta.”
Khalaf has made waves at the company in his short time, having taken on the leadership of its go-to-market arm in August. He led the launch of a Marqeta for Banking in October, a portfolio of seven banking products that marked its largest-ever product expansion.
Since the product launch, the company has seen ongoing interest in Marqeta for Banking, and “have made inroads with both new companies and our existing customers,” a spokesperson told Banking Dive. “While we can’t share hard numbers publicly at this point, we are excited by the progress we’ve made so far.”
Khalaf’s 30-plus year tech career has counted him four times as a CEO, most recently at mobile app analytics platform Fluffy, which in 2014 was acquired by Yahoo for over $200 million.
Khalaf’s diverse leadership experience, alongside the “strong customer orientation and product vision he has shown in his time at Marqeta thus far, and his ability to build great teams make him the right person to lead Marqeta into the next chapter,” Gardner said.
Alongside Khalaf, Todd Pollak, a former Google executive and chief commercial officer at Ancestry, was tapped to become Marqeta’s chief revenue officer.
“There is tremendous opportunity in front of us to enable the brands we serve with our innovative, flexible platform and grow the ubiquity of digital payments globally,” Khalaf said.
