Loula is a cross-border payment platform built for businesses engaged in international trade. We combine the reliability of traditional banking infrastructure with the speed and efficiency of stablecoin transfers. With low fees, real-time currency conversion, and fast settlement, Loula enables businesses to send payments to suppliers and receive funds from clients across Latin America, the U.S., Europe, China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. By offering hybrid payment solutions, Loula offers its customers the financial and user experience benefits of stablecoin payments without removing them from the traditional banking system that they still require, such as SWIFT.

The Challenge

Loula wanted to allow businesses to send and receive payments securely without ever having to manage or touch private keys. This goal required a non-custodial system where Loula could maintain compliance and usability while clients retained self-custody. 

The benefit of Portal APIs to Loula

Loula offers each of their clients a unique Portal client ID and API credentials, allowing their backend to securely interact with the customer wallet. Once a client is onboarded, Loula generates a shared elliptic curve key for secure signing and sets up a USDC wallet in the client’s name. These wallets are used to receive funds—typically from buyers, customers, or from their own corporate entities abroad—and to send payments to overseas suppliers. 

Portal’s cryptographic architecture critical for Loula product experience 

Loula interacts with Portal primarily through backend API calls, orchestrating wallet creation, key management, and transaction execution securely from our server-side infrastructure. The ability to embed wallet creation, signing, and transaction flows securely without exposing private keys allowed them to design a product that met their stated product goal. Importers can manage incoming and outgoing funds through their non-custodial wallet without handling private keys or complex crypto workflows; the experience is integrated into the product and abstracted away from the user flow.

Developer-friendly APIs make building smoother

Loula was able to expedite the development of their product due to the quality of the Portal APIs and docs, as well as the Portal team’s responsiveness to questions during integration.

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For more information about Loula, visit loula.net. To try Portal for free, click here.