Amid the rapid shift towards a cashless economy, fintech company Novatti Group (ASX: NOV) has been selected by global payments company Marqeta to be their domestic partner for the launch of a new prepaid cards business in Australia.  

The deal partners Novatti to Marqeta’s growing list of consumer brands including Square, Uber, Affirm, Instacart, DoorDash, and Afterpay which all use Marqeta’s prepaid cards platform across the United States, Canada and Europe. 

“Having a leading, global payments company like Marqeta choose Novatti as its partner again validates the strength of Novatti’s capabilities and our ability to work with tier-one players,” said Novatti Managing Director, Peter Cook.  

“We are looking forward to working closely together to provide innovative payment solutions to the Australian community.” 

Under terms of the partnership, Novatti will earn fees from Marqeta’s for project implementation, ongoing compliance services and program performance based on the number of subscribers and funds loaded onto Marqeta cards. 

Core to the partnership is the Principal Issuer Licence granted to Novatti by Visa Inc (NYSE: V) in 2019 which allows Novatti to issue pre-paid physical and digital Visa cards. These can be used for in-store purchases as an alternative to cash or credit, or for online purchases that will not be linked to a specific bank account. 

“We’re excited about the partnership with Novatti. Our companies have a similar approach to bringing innovative payment solutions to market,” said Marquta VP of Global Expansion, Melissa Keir. 

“The Novatti team has a wealth of knowledge and experience in payments, and we look forward to our growth in the Australian market.”

Founded in 2010, Marqeta is the world’s first open-API payments platform and is utilised by many of the world’s largest innovators and tech companies. 

Marqeta was named in Forbes 2020 Fintech 50 and the CNBC 2020 Disruptor 50 lists and is currently valued around USD $4.3 billion. To date, it has issued around 140 million payment cards through its platform where Novatti’s experience and payments infrastructure will support their Australian launch. 

The major partnership for Marqeta follows on for significant growth in Novatti’s Visa issuing business with the Company announcing in April 2020 that they would launching a new Visa issuing business in the Asia-Pacific region to target the rapidly growing shift toward cash alternatives in the region. 

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