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ince 2010, Marqeta has quietly established itself as the underlying tech provider for businesses that are looking to issue virtual and physical debit and credit cards to employees, partners and customers alike. As it looks to expand internationally and sign up customers around the globe, the company has taken $25 million in strategic investment led by payments heavyweight Visa.

Unless you’re a fintech geek, you’ve probably never heard of Marqeta. But it’s one of those companies that has been behind the scenes enabling businesses to process credit and debit card payments, as well as issue their own.

By taking a developer-centric approach to card processing, Marqeta has built a tech stack that third parties can use to solve a wide range of problems. As a result, Marqeta has been able to sign up a number of companies you have heard of as customers — including companies like DoorDash, Instacart, Kabbage and Square.

When an on-demand company like DoorDash or Instacart wants to give a debit card to its contractors to pay for the goods they buy on behalf of users, it uses Marqeta. Doing so allows those businesses to make “just-in-time” payments that match up with the cost of goods, so contractors aren’t running around with pre-paid debit cards.

Meanwhile, companies like Affirm might use Marqeta to create virtual card numbers to facilitate payments at an online vendor’s point of sale. And if you’re Square you can use Marqeta to issue a branded debit card like this one:

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