Kulipa raises $6.2 million to power real-world stablecoin spending for global fintechs

• Paris-based Kulipa’s seed round co-led by Flourish Ventures and 1kx will expand regulated issuing capabilities across Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
• Stablecoin adoption is accelerating rapidly across the continent, with Nigeria leading the way. Between mid-2024 and mid-2025 alone, Sub-Saharan Africa moved over $200 billion in on-chain value, with stablecoins accounting for 43% of that activity.
• However, this only represents only a small share of all payment flows, with the infrastructure connecting onchain settlement with regulated card networks remaining fragmented and capital-intensive, often relying on prefunded structures and regionally limited licenses.

Kulipa, a Paris-based stablecoin-native card issuing infrastructure platform, has announced it has raised $6.2 million in seed funding co-led by Flourish Ventures and 1kx, with participation from White Star Capital and Fabric Ventures.

Kulipa enables payroll, cross-border, digital banking, and spend management platforms to issue globally accepted payment cards funded directly from stablecoin balances, bridging onchain settlement with real-world payments.

Stablecoins now settle more than $300 billion daily, yet they represent only a small share of global payment flows. The infrastructure connecting onchain settlement with regulated card networks remains fragmented and capital-intensive, often relying on prefunded structures and regionally limited licenses.

As regulatory clarity increases, fintech platforms need compliant, globally scalable issuing infrastructure to translate stablecoin settlement into practical financial products.

Kulipa stablecoin-native issuing infrastructure

To address this gap, Kulipa has built a stablecoin-native issuing infrastructure designed for capital efficiency, seamless compliance, and global scale. The platform enables partners to launch payment  programs funded directly from stablecoin balances, supporting both rapid pre-funded deployments and deeper wallet-native integrations.

By verifying balances and triggering settlement onchain, Kulipa reduces reliance on collateral-heavy prefunding and enables partners to scale more sustainably. Cards issued through Kulipa can be used anywhere major card networks are accepted, including for retail payments and ATM withdrawals.

In addition, Kulipa assumes fraud liability on issued programs, removing a key operational burden for fintech partners and further aligning incentives around long-term performance.

Stablecoins proven value

“Stablecoins have proven their value as a settlement layer, but using them in everyday financial products is still early,” said Axel Cateland, Founder and CEO of Kulipa. “Card issuance is the bridge between onchain balances and real-world payments. We built Kulipa to give regulated fintech platforms the compliant, capital-efficient infrastructure they need to operate at global scale.”

Kulipa operates a local-first issuing model with regulated coverage across the European Union, Argentina, and Nigeria, with U.S. expansion underway through BIN sponsorship. This compliance footprint aligns with long-term issuer scheme requirements and evolving regulatory expectations, allowing fintech platforms to build within established financial frameworks.

Since launching its infrastructure in February 2025, Kulipa has issued more than 120,000 cards, signed 20 customers, including Flutterwave, Solflare, nSave, and Ready, and achieved 70 percent month-over-month transaction volume growth.

The company’s momentum reflects growing demand from fintech platforms and wallet ecosystem partners to integrate stablecoin settlement into real-world financial products across emerging and developed markets.

“At Flutterwave, we’re focused on building payment infrastructure that works across markets at scale. As stablecoins become a more practical settlement option, it’s important that businesses can turn those balances into real-world spending,” said Olugbenga Agboola, Founder & CEO of Flutterwave. “Partnering with Kulipa allows us to extend stablecoin value into globally accepted payments in a compliant, scalable way.”

“Kulipa has enabled Ready to become an onchain alternative to banks,” said Itamar Lesuisse, CEO of Ready. “With their infrastructure, we can issue globally accepted cards directly from stablecoin balances, giving our users seamless access to everyday spending in a compliant and scalable way.”

Kulipa was founded in 2023 by a leadership team with deep payments, scheme, and compliance expertise. Cateland previously led global Apple Pay and Google Pay deployments at Mastercard.

Moving beyond cross-border settlement

Co-founder and CTO Michael Shynar built commerce infrastructure at WhatsApp and spent nearly a decade as a staff engineer at Google. Head of Compliance Benoit Roger brings regulatory experience from Binance and Nickel Bank, a French neobank acquired by BNP Paribas. In addition, Josephine Soublin, Kulipa’s Head of GTM, previously led Klarna’s launch in France.

“We’re seeing stablecoins moving beyond cross-border settlement and becoming part of real financial infrastructure,” said Ameya Upadhyay, General Partner, Flourish Ventures. “The missing piece has been compliant, scalable card issuance. Kulipa fills that gap by combining capital efficiency with multi-region regulatory coverage, enabling fintech platforms to bring stablecoin settlement into everyday payments.”

1kx Founding Partner Christopher Heymann added, “Stablecoins are reshaping how money moves globally, but for mainstream adoption, people need to spend them as easily as they spend fiat. Kulipa meets users where they already are, starting with the card in their wallet, and gives businesses a turnkey way to offer that experience. We believe this payments layer is critical infrastructure for the next phase of crypto adoption.”

The seed round brings Kulipa’s total funding to $9.2 million. As stablecoins continue to mature as a settlement layer, Kulipa aims to make stablecoin-based spending as seamless and globally accepted as traditional card payments, enabling fintech platforms to operate as fully integrated, onchain-enabled financial institutions.

Read also: Stablecoins vs. PAPSS: The Future of Intra-Africa Payments

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