We’re launching in Portland!

By Jeana Anderson, Social Media Manager

If you’ve been following our activity on Facebook or Twitter, you may have noticed that we’ve been talking about our efforts in Portland a lot. If you haven’t already read the title or guessed, we’re excited to announce that we’re launching Marqeta in Portland on November 1!

We know that all consumers can benefit from having more to spend, more status and more recognition, but we’re excited to see how two groups in particular use their Marqeta cards: college students and parents. In Portland, it’s impossible to walk or bike across a bridge without running into a college campus. Students are, in a lot of cases, just learning to budget, a skill for which we think Marqeta will be a tremendously powerful tool. We’ve been told repeatedly that Portland is a great place to raise a family. Where there are families, you’ll find parents looking to make their budgets go a little bit farther.

Portland’s passion for what’s local provides a booming local merchant scene, but in addition to its network of local merchants, there’s also a mix of regional and national merchants lining the streets. Launching in Portland allows us to test with every category of merchants (local, regional or national) that can benefit from being a part of the network.

Of course, we couldn’t launch without the right kind of partnerships in place. With merchants ranging from the Oregon Historical Society to Pizza Schmizza to Finnegan’s Toy and a partnership with TriMet, we’ve got a great mix of merchants representing things to do, see and eat in Portland. We also have national partners such as 1-800-Flowers, which will give you even more ways to get more for your money.

As we roll out, we’ll be looking for the use of more green Marqeta cards at the merchants where purchases already make sense for consumers. And you can look for us – from the Pearl to PSU – making the first Marqeta purchases with our white cards until our November 1 launch when we transition to Marqeta green.