Klutch Built a Smarter Credit Card and the Onchain Magic Stays Invisible
Klutch is reshaping what a credit card can do. Through automation, programmable tools, and customizable “Mini Apps,” the user experience is transformed. And thanks to Rain, these features run seamlessly on modern infrastructure, remaining entirely behind the scenes of the user experience.
We sat down with Renato Steinberg, Klutch’s founder and CEO, to talk about the importance of simplicity, how automation became a superpower, and why Klutch users don’t have to engage with what’s happening onchain.
Tell us about Klutch and the vision behind it.
Renato: Klutch started with a simple question: why hasn’t the credit card evolved? We designed Klutch to rethink the card experience entirely. The easiest way to explain Klutch is we’re doing to the credit card what the App Store did to the iPhone.
With Klutch, users can add “Mini Apps” to their card the same way they’d add apps to a phone. These Mini Apps are small automations and tools that make the card smarter over time. They help people manage subscriptions, set spending rules, handle child allowances, sync to Google Sheets, reimburse FSA purchases, and more. Every month, the card gets a new capability.
For us, it’s about giving people a single card that finally reflects how they actually live and spend.
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What inspired you to build a programmable card with automations?
Renato: Honestly, it came from my own life. I had young kids, tons of subscriptions, several budgets, and I was trying to use different services to automate everything. That meant juggling around 20 different cards at once. It made no sense. So we asked: what if one card did it all? What if your bank app came with the tools you wish existed? Klutch was built to solve that exact problem. One card, all the functionality.
How are people using Klutch today?
Renato: It ranges widely. Some people use Klutch for simple controls, like limiting spend at a specific merchant or canceling subscriptions easily. Others use virtual cards, child allowance tools, or automated budgeting. Then you have power users, especially developers, who use our API to build fully automated money workflows. They automate everything from the moment a paycheck lands to how their monthly spending is categorized and tracked.
Klutch can be as simple or as programmable as users want it to be.
Klutch seems to appeal to niche communities. Why does that work?
Renato: Mini Apps make it easy to build for specific groups without creating an entire new card product. Traditional issuers can’t justify a bespoke card for a small but passionate community. With Klutch and Rain, the marginal cost of adding a Mini App is tiny.
For example, we launched a carbon-offset Mini App for eco-conscious users — something too small to justify a standalone card, but perfect as an add-on.This approach lets us serve more communities with tools that actually fit their lifestyles.
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How does Rain support the card experience Klutch delivers?
Renato: Working with Rain is completely different from working with a traditional bank. The team moves quickly, operates transparently, and supported us through the Visa approval and compliance process, making it far smoother than my past experiences.
Their flexibility really matters. Many of our Mini Apps depend on being able to influence the authorization flow, like declining a transaction based on a user’s rule. Traditional banks and processors typically don’t allow that. Rain does.
That capability unlocked a lot of what we built.
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From your perspective, how visible is Rain’s stablecoin infrastructure?
Renato: Not visible in the user experience. From our perspective and from our users’ perspective, everything is completely fiat-based. The card feels like a traditional credit card. Users don’t need to understand or think about stablecoins or onchain systems.
Rain handles all of that behind the scenes. We don’t interact with it directly, and users don’t need to know it’s there. They just get a clean, modern card experience.
How do you approach user safety?
Renato: Klutch offers additional security controls compared to many traditional cards. We let users generate multiple card numbers, create single-use or merchant-locked cards, and set granular controls. If one number gets compromised, everything else is still protected.
Our systems are modern. No outdated rails. And Rain offers a secure, modern issuing foundation to match. The combination gives users more control and more confidence.
Where is Klutch headed next?
Renato: The Mini App model can go far beyond credit cards. You can apply it to checking accounts, banking tools, and even blockchain-enabled financial applications.
We see Klutch becoming a platform where others can build financial apps on top of us, without the friction of legacy banking systems.
Rain’s Takeaway: Users Should Never Have to Touch the Plumbing
Klutch shows what’s possible when onchain infrastructure stays where it belongs: out of sight.
- Klutch offers a personalized, intuitive, fiat-based card experience.
- Rain quietly powers the issuing, settlement, and authorization rails, including the stablecoin magic.
- Users get simplicity. Klutch gets flexibility. Rain handles the complexity.
Exactly how it should be.
