The CaaS Infrastructure Bridging On-Chain Liquidity and Legacy Commerce Rails

For years, the crypto card was a compromise. You could spend your digital assets in the real world, but only if you surrendered custody to a centralized exchange, manually sold your assets for fiat, loaded a prepaid holding account, and waited.

The first generation of crypto cards solved the acceptance problem, but they failed the fundamental premise of Web3: user sovereignty.
Kulipa is rewriting this primitive.

Operating out of Paris and fortified by a highly strategic $6.2M Seed Round co-led by Flourish Ventures and 1kx, Kulipa does not build consumer apps; it builds infrastructure.

Co-founders Axel Cateland and Josh Shterenberg have engineered a sophisticated Card-as-a-Service (CaaS) layer. This platform empowers the industry’s leading self-custodial wallets to transform idle on-chain stablecoins into global purchasing power without requiring the user to give up their private keys.

“The era of the prepaid, custodial crypto card is ending. The future of Web3 payments is direct, on-chain settlement at the point of sale.”

TOP SERVICES

As a B2B infrastructure provider, Kulipa focuses on delivering a plug-and-play product suite designed to get Web3 native companies to market in weeks rather than years. Their primary service offerings include:

  • API-First CaaS Integration: A developer-centric issuance layer that enables wallets and neobanks to programmatically deploy and manage card programs with minimal backend engineering.
  • White-Label Card Issuance: Fully customizable physical and virtual debit cards that allow partners to maintain complete brand sovereignty over the user experience.
  • Global Fiat Settlement: Frictionless clearing via the Visa and Mastercard networks, instantly bridging on-chain assets to over 37 million legacy merchant terminals worldwide.

By abstracting away the immense friction of legacy banking integrations, Kulipa serves as a comprehensive operational partner. They handle the heavy lifting of AML compliance, biometric security integrations, and backend fraud detection.

This dynamic allows Web3 developers to focus entirely on user acquisition and frontend UI, bypassing the labyrinth of traditional financial regulations and BIN sponsorship.

CORE FEATURES

At the technical level, Kulipa’s architecture is built specifically to support the complex realities of modern decentralized finance. The platform’s standout capabilities include:

  • Direct On-Chain Settlement: Real-time transaction authorization executed directly against wallet balances (e.g., USDC, Paxos), completely eliminating the need for manual, centralized top-ups.
  • Native Mobile Provisioning: Instant virtual card integration with Apple Pay® and Google Pay™, allowing users to spend their crypto mere minutes after onboarding.
  • Wallet-Agnostic Connectivity: Deep architectural compatibility across diverse setups, including legacy EOA (Externally Owned Accounts), Account Abstraction (ERC-4337) for sponsored gas, and institutional MPC (Multi-Party Computation) wallets.

Rounding out the technical stack are robust administrative tools designed for scale. Issuers gain access to a real-time analytics dashboard for deep cohort insights and transaction monitoring. Simultaneously, cardholders are empowered via API with granular, in-app controls. They can instantly freeze assets, set dynamic spend limits, and monitor their on-chain outflows with absolute transparency.

ECOSYSTEM INTEGRATIONS & LIVE DEPLOYMENTS

An infrastructure provider is ultimately judged by the ecosystem building upon its rails. Kulipa’s API has already been deployed by leading wallets and fintechs to power live, market-ready card programs.

  • 💳 Powers Solflare Card: Kulipa provides the issuance and settlement infrastructure integrating direct Solana-based spending utility natively into one of Web3’s most popular wallets.
  • 💳 Powers Ready Card: A consumer-facing card program rapidly deployed utilizing Kulipa’s turnkey CaaS API framework.
  • Infrastructure Integrations: Kulipa’s backend is fortified by deep technical partnerships with Turnkey (powering secure MPC wallet architecture) and Marble (scaling compliance and security controls).

INSTITUTIONAL VALIDATION & THE AFRICAN FRONTIER

The resilience of Kulipa’s infrastructure is currently being tested on a massive, cross-border scale. In a landmark move, Kulipa recently announced a collaboration with African fintech titan Flutterwave. By combining Kulipa’s issuance rails with Turnkey’s secure MPC wallet management, they are delivering an end-to-end stablecoin spending experience to merchants across the African continent.

This shifts the narrative from crypto as a novelty to crypto as a fundamental payment rail in regions historically plagued by currency volatility.

Mastercard has also accepted Kulipa into its Crypto Partner Program alongside industry heavyweights like Circle and Fireblocks. Traditional finance is actively validating and adopting their approach to compliant, scalable on-chain spending.

THE TODEY VERDICT: ECOSYSTEM FIT

At TODEY, we categorize companies based on their ability to empower the broader ecosystem. Kulipa represents a true “Force Multiplier” in the infrastructure tier.

By providing the highly regulated, technically complex rails required for direct on-chain settlement, they enable platforms like Solflare and Ready Card to seamlessly bridge the gap between DeFi and retail commerce.

For builders looking to capture the spending power of the Transsociet without taking on the regulatory burden of becoming a bank, Kulipa is currently one of the most compelling, enterprise-ready CaaS stacks on the market.