Marqeta (MQ) Wolfe FinTech Forum summary

Executive introductions and leadership background

• CEO has 20 years of payments experience across Visa, PayPal, and Amex, with four years at the company, including one as CEO and three as CFO.

• CFO joined recently, bringing a decade of payments experience from JPMorgan and Stripe, with a focus on large-scale contract negotiations and hyper-growth environments.

• Leadership is motivated by the company's unique customer base and its position as a category creator in modern card issuing.

Business performance and growth drivers

• Achieved 24% gross profit growth and $110 million EBITDA, a 3.5x increase over the prior year.

• Total processing volume (TPV) grew 31% for the year, accelerating to 36% in Q4, driven by lending, buy now pay later, and expense management use cases.

• Lending and buy now pay later grew about 60% in the second half, expense management over 40%, and financial services over 30% in Q4.

• Underlying growth profile remains above 20% after adjusting for unique headwinds.

Guidance and headwinds

• 2026 guidance reflects about 10 percentage points of gross profit headwinds due to fintech boom renewals, Block contract tiering, Cash App diversification, and non-recurring benefits from the prior year.

• Block contract pricing stepped down in December, impacting 11 of 12 months in the year.

• Cash App, a top five U.S. debit program, is diversifying providers but is expected to maintain Marqeta as its primary partner.