Block vs Visa: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Block and Visa side by side

1. 1958Visa

   BankAmericard launched

   Bank of America launched BankAmericard, the direct predecessor to Visa.

2. 1976Visa

   Visa name adopted

   The network adopted the Visa name to support international acceptance and brand consistency.

3. 2008Visa

   Visa IPO

   Visa became a public company, changing the economics from a bank association structure to a shareholder-owned company.

4. 2009Block

   Square founded in St. Louis

   Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey start Square in February 2009 after McKelvey loses a $2,000 glass sale because he cannot take an American Express card. With engineer Tristan O'Tierney they build a reader that plugs into a phone's headphone jack.

5. 2010Block

   Square reader and app go public

   Square releases its free card reader and app, letting individuals and small sellers take card payments on a smartphone at one published rate instead of signing a bank merchant contract.

6. 2011Block

   Visa invests in Square

   Visa makes a strategic investment in Square in April 2011, a sign the card networks saw the startup as widening card acceptance rather than threatening it.

7. 2012Block

   Starbucks deal

   Starbucks invests $25 million and Square starts processing card payments at about 7,000 U.S. Starbucks stores, with Dorsey joining the Starbucks board.

8. 2013Block

   Square Cash launches

   Square launches Square Cash in October 2013, letting people send money to each other by email. It later becomes Cash App.

9. 2014Block

   Square Capital and Caviar

   Square starts lending to its own sellers through Square Capital in May 2014, with repayments taken as a share of daily card sales, and buys food delivery service Caviar.

10. 2015Block

    IPO on the New York Stock Exchange

    Square lists on the NYSE as SQ on November 19, 2015 at $9 a share, a valuation of about $2.9 billion, raising about $243 million.

11. 2016Visa

    Alfred F. Kelly Jr. becomes CEO

    Alfred F. Kelly Jr. became CEO of Visa in 2016. Chief executive of Visa from December 2016 to January 2023, when Ryan McInerney succeeded him; Kelly then served as executive chairman.

12. 2018Block

    Cash App adds bitcoin; Square buys Weebly

    Cash App, which added the Cash Card debit card in 2017, lets users buy bitcoin from 2018, and Square buys website builder Weebly for $365 million. Commission-free stock investing follows in 2019.

13. 2020Block

    Bitcoin treasury, Verse and Credit Karma Tax

    The FDIC approves deposit insurance for Square Financial Services in March 2020. Square buys Spanish payments app Verse in June, puts $50 million into 4,709 bitcoin in October, and agrees in November to buy Credit Karma Tax for $50 million.

14. 2020Visa

    Acquired Plaid (abandoned)

    Visa acquired Plaid (abandoned) for $5.3 billion. Visa agreed in January 2020 to buy US data-connectivity fintech Plaid for USD 5.3 billion.

15. 2021Block

    TIDAL purchase and Square's own bank opens

    Square Financial Services opens on March 1, 2021, and Square agrees the same month to buy a majority of the TIDAL music service for $297 million in cash and stock, with Jay-Z joining its board.

16. 2021Block

    Afterpay deal announced

    Square agrees in August 2021 to buy Afterpay, the Australian buy now, pay later company, in an all-stock deal valued at about $29 billion.

17. 2021Block

    Square becomes Block

    On December 10, 2021, Square, Inc. renames itself Block, Inc., shortly after Dorsey steps down as Twitter's chief executive. Square remains the name of the seller business.

18. 2022Block

    Afterpay acquisition closes

    Block completes the Afterpay purchase on January 31, 2022. Because it paid in its own shares, which had roughly halved since the announcement, the deal was worth much less at closing than the headline $29 billion.

19. 2022Visa

    Tink acquisition

    Visa completed its purchase of Stockholm-based open banking platform Tink in March 2022.

20. 2023Block

    Hindenburg report, Square leadership change and Bitkey

    Short seller Hindenburg Research accuses Cash App in March 2023 of inflated user metrics and weak compliance, which Block rejects.

21. 2023Visa

    Ryan McInerney becomes CEO

    Ryan McInerney became Visa's CEO after serving as president.

22. 2024Block

    Proto mining chip and portfolio cuts

    Block says in April 2024 it has designed a 3-nanometer bitcoin mining chip, agrees in July to supply Core Scientific, and in November winds down its TBD crypto unit and scales back TIDAL.

23. 2025Block

    Cash App settlements and the XYZ ticker

    In January 2025 the CFPB orders Block to pay up to $120 million in Cash App redress plus a $55 million penalty, state regulators impose an $80 million anti-money-laundering penalty, and the ticker changes from SQ to XYZ.

24. 2025Block

    Block joins the S&P 500

    Block enters the S&P 500 on July 23, 2025, replacing Hess, and at its November investor day sets 2028 targets of about $15.8 billion of gross profit and $4.6 billion of adjusted operating income.

25. 2025Visa

    Revenue reaches $40.0B

    Visa reported $40.0 billion in fiscal 2025 net revenue.

26. 2026Block

    Workforce cut to under 6,000

    On February 26, 2026, Dorsey announces Block will shrink from more than 10,000 employees to just under 6,000, citing AI, and the shares jump about 24%.

Acquisitions

Questions about Block vs Visa