Axel Cateland is Co-Founder and CEO of Kulipa, a Paris-based stablecoin-native card issuing infrastructure platform enabling fintech platforms, digital banks, and crypto wallets to issue globally accepted payment cards funded directly from stablecoin balances.

Axel graduated from Columbia Business School and spent over a decade in payments, joining Mastercard in 2011 where he rose to VP of Mobile Payments, leading global Apple Pay and Google Pay deployments, before serving as Head of Banking at Spendesk.

Axel identified a critical gap in the market: stablecoins settling over $300 billion daily yet remaining nearly unusable for everyday spending due to fragmented, capital-intensive infrastructure.

Under Axel's leadership, Kulipa raised $9.2M in total funding from Flourish Ventures, 1kx, White Star Capital, and Fabric Ventures, and was selected for Mastercard's Start Path incubator program.

Since launching in February 2025, Kulipa has issued over 120,000 cards, signed 20 customers including Flutterwave and Solflare, and achieved 70% month-over-month growth in transaction volume.