Kulipa

Kulipa is a B2B infrastructure platform that enables crypto wallets and fintech companies to issue globally accepted payment cards that spend directly from on-chain stablecoin balances — without requiring cardholders to give up self-custody.

The Problem Kulipa Solves

Stablecoins have become practical settlement instruments, but they remain stranded at the point of real-world spending. Getting from an on-chain USDC balance to a merchant terminal traditionally requires either converting to fiat in advance (losing yield and custody) or building a full card-issuing stack from scratch — a process that can take years and tens of millions of dollars in regulatory and infrastructure investment. Kulipa sells that stack as a service, handling scheme connectivity, KYC/KYB, fraud screening, compliance, and real-time on-chain authorization through a single API.

How It Works

When a cardholder swipes or taps a Kulipa-powered card, the card network opens an authorization window of roughly five to six seconds. Kulipa queries the user's on-chain balance during that window and, if funds are sufficient, returns an approval and places a hold. Settlement occurs one to three business days later through the standard daily clearing file process, at which point Kulipa triggers the on-chain transfer and routes funds through its off-ramp to the merchant's bank via traditional card rails.

The central engineering challenge is preventing double-spending: a cardholder moving funds between authorization and settlement could render the hold worthless. Kulipa addresses this differently depending on wallet type:

Account-abstraction wallets (such as Ready/Argent): At card issuance, Kulipa generates a session key with restricted permissions — USDC transfers only. During authorization, this key enforces a balance hold through the wallet's cosigner mechanism, preventing the user from moving the held funds unilaterally until settlement clears.

Externally-owned-account wallets (standard Solana or Ethereum wallets): At authorization, Kulipa sweeps the authorized amount into an escrow account immediately. A successful on-chain transfer equals an approval; a failure equals a denial. Funds move from escrow to the off-ramp account at settlement.

Products

Cards — Physical and virtual Visa and Mastercard debit cards issued across more than 100 countries. Wallet and fintech clients control the cardholder experience end-to-end through the API; Kulipa handles the underlying issuance, compliance, and settlement operations.

Wallets — A bank-account-style UX layer built on stablecoin rails, enabling high-speed settlements for neobanks, remittance providers, payroll platforms, and spend-management tools. Kulipa claims remittance costs can be reduced by up to 10x compared to correspondent banking.

Virtual Accounts — White-labeled accounts that automate fiat-to-stablecoin conversion at the point of receipt, reducing dependence on traditional Nostro accounts for cross-border money movement.

Supported Chains and Assets

Kulipa's infrastructure supports settlement on Solana, Ethereum, and multiple Ethereum Layer 2 networks. The primary supported stablecoins are USDC (Circle) and Paxos-branded stablecoins. The platform describes itself as blockchain-agnostic, capable of deploying on any EVM chain, L2, or Solana.

API Architecture

Kulipa exposes a RESTful HTTP API authenticated via API key. Through it, clients manage the full card lifecycle: user creation, KYC/KYB verification, card issuance, wallet address linkage, and transaction management. A webhook listener handles real-time event notifications for authorization requests, verification status changes, and transaction lifecycle events. Pre-built UI components for KYC flows and card management reduce front-end integration work. The company says enterprise clients can go live with a compliant stablecoin card product in a few weeks.

Customers and Partnerships

Since launching live card infrastructure in February 2025, Kulipa has signed 20 enterprise customers spanning both fintech firms and crypto-native wallets. Named customers include Flutterwave (a large African payments fintech), nSave, Ready (formerly Argent — a smart contract wallet with approximately 2 million users), and [[PROJECT:849]] Solflare, one of the leading Solana self-custody wallets.

On the scheme side, Kulipa was selected for Mastercard's Start Path incubator program and has direct connectivity to both Visa and Mastercard networks for card issuance.

Team and Funding

Kulipa was co-founded in Paris in 2023 by Axel Cateland (CEO), previously at Mastercard and Spendesk, and Michael Shynar (CTO), previously at Google and Meta. The company employs approximately 20 people and holds regulated operating licenses in the EU, Argentina, and Nigeria. US market entry is underway through bank identification number (BIN) sponsorship arrangements.

Funding to date totals $9.2 million. A $3 million pre-seed round closed in July 2024, co-led by Fabric Ventures and White Star Capital. A $6.2 million seed round followed in late 2024, co-led by Flourish Ventures and 1kx, with continued participation from Fabric Ventures and White Star Capital.

Metrics

As of late 2025, Kulipa reported more than 120,000 cards issued across its 20 enterprise clients, with transaction volume growing at approximately 70% month-over-month. Revenue comes from service fees charged to enterprise clients plus standard interchange income on card transactions.

Solana Ecosystem Fit

Solana is one of Kulipa's supported settlement chains, and Solflare — a leading Solana self-custody wallet — is an active customer. For Solana wallet providers, Kulipa's infrastructure offers a direct path to monetize on-chain USDC balances through interchange revenue on every card transaction, without requiring those wallets to build their own card-issuance stack or navigate regulatory licensing independently. Kulipa absorbs scheme connectivity, compliance, fraud screening, and settlement complexity, while the wallet retains the user relationship and controls the cardholder UX.