How Defacto Built Its B2B Credit Card with Stripe Issuing

In June 2026, Defacto launched the first B2B credit card designed for French SMEs that had been shut out of traditional credit. The infrastructure behind it: Stripe Issuing. Here's what we built, and why it matters for thousands of business owners.

The problem

A small business in construction, transport, or hospitality has a straightforward need: pay suppliers, cover operating costs, and keep tools running, without waiting for customers to pay them first. Traditional banks don't move fast enough. Debit cards don't provide access to credit. The result: businesses end up funding their own operations out of pocket, with all the risk that entails.

Defacto was built to close that gap. With invoice financing, treasury advances, and now a credit card, the idea is simple: give SMEs access to credit when they actually need it.

What we built with Stripe

To launch the card, we made a deliberate infrastructure choice: Stripe Issuing. That decision let us focus our energy on what we do best (credit, risk scoring, SME relationships) while Stripe handled card issuance, KYB, spending controls, and wallets.

In practice, here's what Stripe Issuing made possible:

• Virtual card issuance in seconds
• Borrower KYB directly through the Stripe Connect API
• Spending limits by merchant category, country, and transaction amount
• Real-time webhooks to verify eligibility at every transaction

What it changes for SMEs

Since launch, owners of small and mid-sized businesses can access a credit line, receive their card, and pay suppliers the same day. Cash flow becomes visible, manageable, and flexible.

The revenue generated by card transactions also gives Defacto something new: real spending data from SMEs. That's valuable material for refining our risk models and, over the coming months, building a sharper picture of how French SMEs actually manage their finances.

What's next

This is just the start. The card is live in France, our partnership with Stripe is growing, and we have a lot more to share about what we're learning as we finance SMEs day in, day out.