Role at Marqeta
Pioneering fintech entrepreneur who founded Marqeta in 2010, inventing modern card issuing and leading the company to its $15B IPO in 2021.
Marqeta
Financial Technology & Modern Card IssuingFounded 2010- HQ today: Oakland, California, USA
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: November 2026
Founders
Who Founded Marqeta?
Jason Gardner · Founded 2010 · HQ today: Oakland, California, USA
Who founded Marqeta?
Marqeta was founded by Jason Gardner in 2010. It is now led by Simon Khalaf.
- Founders
- Jason Gardner
- Founded
- 2010
- Headquarters
- Oakland, California, USA
- Number of founders
- 1
- Current CEO
- Simon Khalaf
- When was Marqeta founded?
- Marqeta was founded in 2010.
- Who started Marqeta?
- Marqeta was founded by Jason Gardner.
- How old is Marqeta?
- Marqeta is 16 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
Gardner spent years navigating banking regulations and card network rules to build the first open-API modern card issuer. Marqeta's breakthrough occurred when on-demand delivery pioneers like DoorDash and Instacart adopted its JIT funding technology to prevent driver fraud by dynamically loading exact delivery funds onto payment cards only when drivers swiped at grocery checkouts.
Marqeta: CEO & Leadership History
Full timeline →Simon Khalaf
Executive Leadership
Mike Milotich
Finance & Strategy
Keep researching Marqeta
Who Founded Marqeta? FAQ
Who founded Marqeta?
Marqeta was founded in 2010 by an entrepreneurial team committed to innovating Financial Technology & Modern Card Issuing.
What was the inspiration behind founding Marqeta?
The founders were inspired by the inefficiencies, high costs, and fragmented nature of legacy solutions, creating a modern, unified alternative.
Where was Marqeta originally created?
Marqeta was originally established in Oakland, United States.
Are the original founders still involved?
The founding team established the cultural and technical DNA that continues to guide Marqeta's current executive strategy and product roadmap.
What early technical breakthroughs did the founders achieve?
They designed lightweight, scalable software architectures that bypassed the performance bottlenecks of legacy mainframe and client-server systems.
How did the founders fund the initial development?
Through initial personal savings, angel investments, and early customer design partnership revenues.
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