Capital on Tap is partnering with Marqeta, a global modern card issuing platform, to power payment processing for its small business credit card, relied on by over 60,000 UK enterprises, reports Sharon Kimathi of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Since its launch in 2012, Capital on Tap has competed with the offering of major banks, by offering small businesses a faster and more transparent way to fund their business. Capital on Tap has already provided close to £1 billion in funding to more than 60,000 small businesses across the UK.

“Capital on Tap have shown themselves to be true innovators in the UK fintech space, taking an underserved market like credit for small businesses and building a product that can make a real difference for their customers,” said Ian Johnson, head of European growth at Marqeta.

Founded in Oakland, California in 2010, the Marqeta platform is used by various innovators to drive new modes of commerce through modern card issuing.

“We’re excited to partner with Marqeta,” said David Luck, co-founder and CEO of Capital on Tap.

“We loved the transparency and simplicity of their technology and how future focused and innovative their open-API platform is. They showed an intuitive understanding in how they could support our mission to help small businesses thrive through better access to working capital.”

Marqeta’s European digital banking solution supports instantly issued virtual cards and offers advanced spend controls to engage users and grow card use. It’s platform and APIs are highly configurable and scalable, and allow Marqeta partners to access actionable, real-time transaction data to drive program improvements.

Marqeta CTO Tony Ford presented Democratizing Issuer Payment Processing with Just-in-time “JIT” Funding at our developers conference, FinDEVR Silicon Valley, in 2016. During the discussion, Ford explained the anatomy of a payment card authorization, the importance of putting customers into the authorization stream, and the role of open payment APIs.

With more than $376 million funding from investors including Coatue Management and Granite Ventures, Marqeta was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Oakland, California.

Modern card issuer Marqeta has secured its first four partnerships in Europe following its launch in-market in the region last October,reports Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The California fintech has signed up digital banks Morning and YAPEAL – from France and Switzerland respectively – along with Spain’s point-of-sale lender Aplazame and Scandinavian mobile payments platform Auka.

Marqeta, which has created an advanced payments infrastructure and open-API platform defining a new standard for modern card issuing, sees the UK and Europe as a key market in its global expansion plans.

According to Marqeta’s research, Europeans are 2.5 times more likely to be already using a digital bank than someone in the United States.

Ian Johnson, head of European growth at Marqeta, said: “(The U.K. and Europe) has a thriving ecosystem of digital banks and fintech start-ups that have already had a lot of success in market. To be able to bring on customers of this calibre is true validation of the global possibilities around modern card issuing and of our early work in the market.”

Marqeta has been awarded a valuation of nearly $2 billion. The fintech views modern card issuing as a $40 trillion addressable opportunity.

The company participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, in 2016. At the event, Chief Technology Officer Tony Ford provided a presentation on payment gateways and API innovation titled Democratizing Issuer Payment Processing with Just-in-time Funding.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Oakland, California, Marqeta has raised more than $116 million in funding. The company’s investors include 83North, ICONIQ Capital, Commerce Ventures, IA Capital Group, and Visa.