Payments

Marqeta and Square bring Square Card to Canada for SMBs

Global card issuing platform Marqeta announced Thursday its latest partnership with payments giant Square to bring the Square Card to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Canada.

Square and Marqeta introduced the Square Card in the U.S. in 2019, for small business owners to access their earnings immediately and without any additional fees. The two teams attribute the scale and success of that rollout to their now international expansion.

“Our partnership with Marqeta has enabled us to build a highly successful card program with the ability to scale as we grow and expand into new markets,” said Christina Riechers, head of product for the Square Banking Team. “Businesses should be able to access their money as soon as they make a sale.”

According to a release, when a Square seller processes a sale, the income immediately lands in their Square Balance and can be accessed instantly with their Square Card. Before Square Card, Canadian sellers had to wait for the next business day for their money to reach an external bank account. To do so, Square leaned on Marqeta’s integrations with card networks, compliance expertise and risk management capabilities.

Square also uses the Marqeta platform’s Just-In-Time (JIT) Funding to “seamlessly control the authorization of transactions based on the attributes and parameters the team had previously set up when they launched the U.S. Square Card program.”

Marqeta stock leapt 38.3% in October, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, that was the likely result of several partnership announcements with Uber Technologies and Bill.com. The company also said it was rolling out spending and rewards products for the cryptocurrency industry, with Coinbase settled among its high-profile customers.

The fintech also went public earlier this year and now has a market capitalization of just over $13 billion.

Marqeta and Square’s international expansion marks one of many payment expansion strategies for companies quickly moving in to Canada to net a wider audience. The same day as Marqeta and Square’s release, Walmart Rewards Mastercard and startup Uplift both added a BNPL option in Canada.

“Our platform helps companies build innovative card programs that scale globally rapidly, and the Square Card expansion into Canada is a testament to Marqeta’s commitment to helping its customers grow and scale,” said Vidya Peters, Chief Operating Officer at Marqeta. “We’re proud to power the latest iteration of Square’s global expansion with this announcement.”

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