Striga

Striga is a regulated embedded finance and digital asset infrastructure platform built to help fintechs, neobanks, and crypto businesses launch compliant payment products across Europe without needing individual regulatory licenses. Operating under a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license issued by Estonia's Financial Intelligence Unit, Striga gives developers a single API that bundles custody, trading, banking connectivity, and card issuing into one stack — covering the full lifecycle of both crypto and fiat money movement across the European Economic Area.

What It Does

Striga's core offering is an API platform that lets businesses embed regulated financial services into their products. A company building a crypto wallet, a neobanking app, or a cross-border payments service can use Striga's endpoints rather than building and licensing each component individually.

The platform covers four main capability areas:

Banking and fiat rails: Striga generates named virtual IBANs for individual users, connected to the SEPA and SEPA Instant networks. This means clients can receive euro bank transfers directly into in-app accounts, and businesses can build euro-denominated wallets that connect to the broader European banking system without holding their own banking license.

Card issuing: Striga issues Visa-branded physical and virtual payment cards that can be linked to any currency account on the platform — including crypto balances. Users can spend BTC, ETH, USDC, or EUR directly from their Striga-powered wallets using a standard payment card.

Crypto custody and wallets: The API creates dedicated, segregated cryptocurrency wallets for each end user. Supported assets include Bitcoin (including via the Lightning Network for fast, low-fee transfers), Ethereum, and USDC across multiple blockchain networks including Solana, Base, Ethereum mainnet, and Polygon. Each user wallet comes with unique deposit addresses.

Crypto-fiat ramps and trading: Striga handles on-chain and off-chain crypto transfers and provides a trading layer that lets users swap between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies inside the same API flow. This covers both on-ramp (fiat to crypto) and off-ramp (crypto to fiat) use cases.

Regulatory Foundation

Regulatory compliance is Striga's central differentiator. The company describes itself as the first firm approved under Estonia's new MiCA-aligned virtual currency service regime, receiving its license in 2022. That single Estonian VASP license provides passporting rights across 30 countries in the EEA, which means Striga's clients inherit that regulatory coverage when building on the platform rather than navigating dozens of separate national licensing processes.

Striga also bundles KYC (Know Your Customer) and KYB (Know Your Business) compliance infrastructure into its API, so client businesses can onboard individual and corporate users compliantly without building their own identity verification pipelines.

Solana and Stablecoin Support

Among the blockchain networks Striga integrates with, Solana is one of the chains where USDC deposits and withdrawals are supported. This is significant because Solana carries the second-largest circulating supply of USDC after Ethereum, reflecting the network's growing role in stablecoin payment flows. Businesses using Striga to build stablecoin-based wallets or payment products can therefore settle or receive USDC on Solana through the same API they use for Bitcoin transactions and SEPA bank transfers.

Striga is a registered partner in Circle's Alliance Directory, which reflects its verified integration with the USDC infrastructure.

Scale and Customers

As of its acquisition in late 2025, Striga had processed over $200 million in total payment volume and moved over 2,000 Bitcoin in fewer than 28 months of operation. The platform served more than 50 companies building regulated finance applications, crypto wallets, and card programs across the EEA. The company is cash flow-positive.

Team and Backing

Striga was founded and led by CEO Prashanth Balasubramanian, who built the business around the premise that regulatory complexity was the primary barrier to fintech innovation in Europe. The company is headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia, and was backed by Y Combinator, UC Berkeley's blockchain program, Stillmark, and Fulgur Ventures — a mix of Silicon Valley and crypto-native investors.

Lightspark Acquisition

On October 14, 2025, Lightspark — the company building open payment protocols and infrastructure on the Bitcoin network — announced the acquisition of Striga. The deal was motivated by Lightspark's need to establish a regulated European presence and accelerate its rollout of compliant, borderless payment products.

Striga's CEO Prashanth Balasubramanian and key leaders in compliance, risk, engineering, and growth all joined Lightspark following the acquisition. The Striga platform continued operating as "Lightspark Europe," with existing customer contracts, APIs, and integrations remaining unchanged in the near term. Lightspark stated its intent to apply for additional e-money and MiCA licenses to expand its European regulatory coverage.

The acquisition price was not disclosed.

Current Status

Following the Lightspark acquisition, Striga remains operational as the European infrastructure arm of Lightspark's global payments business. The API platform continues to serve existing customers, and the documentation site at docs.striga.com remains active. Lightspark's broader thesis is that open, compliant Bitcoin-based payments can serve as a foundation for instant global money movement — and Striga's regulated European stack is central to that ambition on the continent.

For developers or businesses evaluating embedded finance infrastructure for European markets, Striga represents one of the more comprehensive regulated stacks available through a single API integration, with the operational and financial resources of Lightspark now backing it.