Meet $3B In Valuation From Two Companies You Haven’t Heard Of

Two quick hits this morning on two big rounds that led to two fresh, threshold-meeting valuations for a pair of companies I bet that you haven’t heard of.

Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

Yes, Marqeta and Ivalua are now double- and single-unicorns, respectively. Let’s take a peek at the news.

Unicorn One: Marqeta

First, Marqeta has raised a $260 million Series E round of funding at $2 billion valuation led by Coatue, according to TechCrunch. Before the new round, Marqeta had raised just over $116 million in known capital, from sources like ICONIQ Capital, Visa, and 83 North.

That makes Marqeta’s new round larger than its entire prior capital result. Notably, the company was worth just $545 million less than a year ago (June 2018) when it raised its $45 million Series D. So, investors are betting that the firm has managed to roughly quadruple its valuation over the last 11 months, give or take. It probably hasn’t, so investors are likely wagering that with this huge capital influx the firm can grow like hell and thus fit its new valuation in 12 or 18 months.

What does Marqeta do that makes it worth so much? It’s in the fintech space, which helps explain its hot valuation. Indeed, the company provides “infrastructure and tools for building highly configurable payment cards.” This means that its customers can quickly issue cards and “physical, virtual, and tokenized payments.”

Look, there’s a lot of money in moving money. TransferWise is huge. Square is huge. And so forth. It’s not a huge shock that Marqeta, with a different take on a big space, is racking up investment. If the firm can grow into its new valuation, of course, is the next question.

Unicorn Two: Ivalua

Our second company is Ivalua, which has put together a $60 million round that values it at “over $1 billion,” according to VentureBeat. Before the new round of capital, the firm had raised $74.4 million.

Tiger Global, an investment house we’ve covered here at Crunchbase News, led the new capital. That Tiger is stepping in makes sense, as Ivalua reports that it “is on pace to exceed $100 million in annual revenue in 2019.” Note that the firm did not say annual recurring revenue, mind. But that scale puts it in Tiger-territory, making the partnership unsurprising.

What does Ivalua do? Aside from whatever this is, the firm works in spend management. Which it summarizes in a real-work context as follows:

I am sure that helps. Spend management matters, of course, because big companies spend lots of money and keeping tabs on it is hard. So, they need help. And as big companies are large and wealthy you can charge them the assistance. Bingo, business model.

Companies of all shapes and sizes are working in the space, including Divvy, although from a very different angle.

Back to topic, don’t forget the Ivalua promise:

We joke, but I bet that Ivalua has better economics than scooters and will thus outlast the latest trend. Even in a down market companies want to track their spend. Maybe even more so.

Marqeta now has two horns while Ivalua can affix its first. And that’s the news!

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias.