Kulipa

Kulipa was a Paris-based stablecoin card infrastructure company that enabled crypto wallets and fintech platforms to issue white-label payment cards backed by on-chain digital assets. Founded in 2023 by CEO Axel Cateland and CTO Michael Shynar, the company positioned itself as an API-first middleware layer sitting between card networks—Visa and Mastercard—and blockchain ecosystems including Solana, EVM chains, and layer-2 networks. Kulipa ceased operations on July 29, 2026, approximately four months after closing a $6.2 million seed round.

What Kulipa Did

Traditional card issuance requires companies to secure principal membership with Visa or Mastercard in each operating region—a costly, compliance-heavy process that can take years. Kulipa removed that barrier entirely. By handling sponsorship relationships, fraud detection, pre-funding, KYC compliance, and settlement operations internally, the company let clients launch fully branded payment cards with a single API integration. As CEO Cateland described it: "The wallet just plugs in via API and controls the experience end-to-end."

The platform was designed to be chain-agnostic. It could deploy on any blockchain—from EVM chains and layer-2 networks to Solana—which meant any wallet or fintech could integrate regardless of which underlying blockchain their users relied on.

How the Technology Worked

Kulipa's infrastructure moved value from on-chain stablecoins to real-world card purchases through four stages:

Top-Up: Users transferred stablecoins from their primary self-custody wallet into a dedicated card wallet. For most integrations, these card wallets were managed through Privy-powered custody infrastructure that kept balances segregated per user.

Authorization: When a cardholder initiated a purchase at any Visa or Mastercard merchant, Kulipa verified available stablecoin balances in real time against funds held in the card wallet before approving the transaction.

Clearing: The transaction moved through standard card scheme rails while funds remained locked on-chain during the settlement window.

Settlement: Stablecoins were redeemed or swapped from the segregated wallet with full on-chain auditability, then transmitted through the card clearing network.

For Solflare—one of the leading Solana self-custody wallets—the integration took a meaningfully different architectural approach. Rather than pre-loading stablecoins into a separate card wallet, the Solflare card pulled spending funds directly from users' own self-custody wallets at the moment of purchase. No balance was held at Kulipa. This design proved consequential when Kulipa shut down.

Clients and Traction

Kulipa launched its infrastructure in February 2025. Within roughly a year it had issued more than 120,000 cards and signed 20 client companies, reporting 70% month-over-month growth in transaction volume. Its customer roster spanned multiple geographies and use cases:

• Solflare: One of Solana's largest self-custody wallets, offering a Kulipa-backed spend card that drew funds directly from user wallets at point of sale
• Ready (formerly Argent): A smart contract wallet that offered a Kulipa-backed debit card to its users
• Flutterwave: One of Africa's largest payment processors, using Kulipa for stablecoin card issuance in Nigeria
• nSave: A savings-focused platform operating in emerging markets

Geographic coverage included the European Union, Argentina, and Nigeria, with planned US expansion via a confidential BIN sponsorship arrangement. Kulipa employed 20 people and had planned to grow to roughly 30, primarily in go-to-market and customer success roles.

Team

The founding team brought senior experience from global payments and technology:

• Axel Cateland (CEO and Founder): Former Head of Banking and CEO at Spendesk Financial Services; previously VP of Mobile Payments at Mastercard, where he led global Apple Pay and Google Pay deployments
• Michael Shynar (CTO and Co-Founder): Eight years as an engineer and engineering manager at Google, followed by four years at WhatsApp
• Benoit Roger (Head of Compliance): Background at Binance and Nickel Bank, a French neobank acquired by BNP Paribas
• Josephine Soublin (Head of GTM): Previously led Klarna's launch in France

Funding

Kulipa raised $9.2 million across two rounds. A $3 million pre-seed in July 2024 was co-led by Fabric Ventures and White Star Capital. A $6.2 million seed round in April 2026 was co-led by Flourish Ventures and 1kx, with continued participation from White Star Capital and Fabric Ventures. The seed round was closed to fund US market expansion and scale the client base.

Shutdown

On July 29, 2026—approximately four months after the seed round closed—Kulipa abruptly ceased all operations, halting card services for all 20 of its client companies overnight. CEO Axel Cateland disputed insolvency characterizations: "Kulipa is not insolvent and isn't going bankrupt. What's actually happening is a structural change to the company that I'm not in a position to detail yet." He cited legal constraints preventing further disclosure but hinted at a possible acquisition, merger, or recapitalization. No subsequent public announcement was made.

The sudden halt exposed the counterparty risk embedded in stablecoin card infrastructure. Although Kulipa did not hold customer funds—stablecoins remained on-chain in user-controlled or segregated wallets—the shutdown froze card functionality overnight for roughly 120,000 cardholders. Ready moved to refund subscription fees to affected users. Solflare announced it would launch a replacement card with a new infrastructure provider within weeks.

The Solflare case illustrated a key design distinction. Because Solflare's card pulled spending funds directly from users' self-custody wallets at the point of sale—rather than from a balance pre-held at Kulipa—Solflare users faced zero fund risk when the company shut down. Their stablecoins remained in their own wallets and were fully accessible.

Solana Ecosystem Role

Kulipa was among the first infrastructure providers to connect Solana self-custody wallets directly to Visa and Mastercard card rails. Solflare's integration demonstrated that Solana-native stablecoins could power everyday consumer spending without requiring users to give up custody of their assets. The chain-agnostic architecture also positioned Kulipa as a layer any Solana-based wallet could use to add compliant, globally accepted card functionality without building card operations, KYC infrastructure, or settlement capabilities independently.

The company's collapse in mid-2026—coming just months after its largest funding round—highlighted the fragility of middleware infrastructure in the stablecoin payments stack, and underscored that self-custody architecture at the point of card integration meaningfully changes the risk profile for end users when a card issuer fails.