How Raposa Coffee Runs a Global Supply Chain on Faster, Cheaper Cross-Border Payments

Raposa Coffee sells canned nitro cold brew coffee and iced tea everywhere a specialty coffee brand can show up: at live events and conferences, on wholesale and retail shelves, directly to consumers, and through custom-branded collaborations with partners like the Miami Heat and Miami Marlins. The company started differently from most CPG brands. In April 2023, founder Andrew raised its first capital on Solana through an NFT drop, then turned those NFTs into loyalty passes for the brand. Raposa has stayed Solana-native ever since, receiving USDC from event partners and conference sponsors long before it had a real home for that balance.

Andrew ran the finances himself. With a master's in accounting, several years at Deloitte, and a CPA, the books were in capable hands from day one. His financial expertise helped Raposa reach positive cash flow early. Its seven-person team, several of them full partners wearing multiple hats, kept a close eye on every cost. Andrew did not bring on a dedicated CFO until July, when he handed over day-to-day financial operations to focus on the bigger picture. Raposa had opened its Altitude account two months earlier, after Andrew and COO Sebastian met the team at Accelerate. As the sole ultimate beneficial owner, Andrew handled the entire onboarding process himself.

A physical product with a global footprint

A canned coffee business sounds local until you trace where the money actually goes. Raposa's supply chain and its customers sit on opposite sides of the world, which means every part of the business runs across different currencies and payment systems.

Its seven-person team spans the US, London, and the Philippines, so even payroll crosses three countries each cycle. Its supply chain stretches even further. Raposa sources green coffee internationally and works with a co-manufacturer in Poland that invoices in euros. The manufacturer uses a globally patented nitro cold brew process. From there, freight partners move the product across borders, while contractors, distributors, warehouses, and fulfilment partners all need to be paid on different terms and timelines.

Its customer base adds another layer. Raposa creates custom-branded products with the Miami Heat and Miami Marlins, sells through wholesale and retail, vends at live events, and runs a direct-to-consumer pop-up in Wynwood. Some partners pay in dollars by ACH or wire. Some still send paper checks. Others, particularly those from Raposa's years on the crypto and tech conference circuit, pay in USDC.

The result is a seven-person team moving money in every direction across currencies, countries, and payment systems. With a traditional bank, each corridor is its own special case: a euro wire here, a conversion fee there, days of waiting each time. This complexity isn't a phase Raposa can grow out of. It's the shape of the business.

People tend to assume stablecoins are a crypto thing, but for a business like Raposa, they solve a practical problem: moving money across countries and currencies without losing time and value at every border. USDC gives the company one dollar-denominated treasury that can pay team members directly or fund local-currency payments when suppliers require them. Raposa still operates across different payment corridors, but it no longer needs a separate balance and process for each one.

A treasury with no home

Before Altitude, Raposa's USDC sat in a Ledger wallet or Squads multisig, disconnected from the bank accounts used to pay vendors and manufacturers. To put that money to work, Andrew had to move it through an off-ramp, into the LLC's operating account, and then back out through traditional payment rails. Every step added time and fees. In Andrew's words, the process was “both annoying and expensive.”

The problem was the clearest with Raposa's Polish co-manufacturer, one of its largest and longest-standing suppliers. Since the manufacturer only accepts wire payments in euros, every payment became an international wire to an IBAN account with a conversion rate and a fee stacked on top. The manufacturing industry, Andrew notes, is neither tech-forward nor crypto-friendly, so the cost of moving money the old way was baked into what should have been a straightforward per-unit cost of goods.

Since moving to Altitude, Raposa can convert USDC into euros and send the SWIFT payment from the same operating account. The manufacturer receives euros by bank transfer exactly as it always has, while Raposa avoids moving money between a wallet, an off-ramp, and a bank account first. Andrew has spent years trying to get vendors like this interested in stablecoins with limited success. Altitude lets him stop fighting that battle, so the vendor never has to change anything, and Raposa can start paying directly from its USDC treasury.

Paying fast, getting paid slow

CPG has a structural cash flow problem that Raposa feels directly: the outflows are immediate, and the inflows aren't. Manufacturing, roasting, freight, distributors, contractors, warehousing, and fulfillment all get paid on short timelines, most of them the moment work is done. On the other side, wholesale and partnership revenue, including from the Miami Heat and Miami Marlins collaborations, runs net 30 at best and net 60 in some cases. Payment often arrives by ACH or wire, and occasionally, Andrew notes, as a paper check. The money leaves fast and comes back slow, and the space in between is where a lean brand's working capital gets stuck.

Raposa's first payment to the Miami Marlins through Altitude was a free ACH transfer that reached them seamlessly. On the receiving side, wires and ACH deposits land in Raposa's Altitude account and convert into their USDC balance. The company's multi-signature approval requirement covers both directions, so every transaction, incoming and outgoing, gets the same scrutiny, and revenue only moves where it's meant to. The direct-to-consumer channel settles in a day. Most of the rest of the business still waits weeks, which is exactly why the cost and speed of each individual payment matters.

Raposa also issues Altitude cards with individual spending limits to team members for day-to-day purchases such as cups, lids, milk, signage, and the other consumables that keep the operation running. Every purchase earns cashback, paid directly into Raposa's USDC balance each month.

What this means for physical product businesses

Ask Andrew what he would tell another CPG founder who assumes none of this applies because they sell a physical product, and he flips the premise: the physical product is exactly why it applies. Suppliers sit across borders and expect to be paid as soon as the work is done. Wholesale buyers and event partners pay 30 or 60 days later, sometimes by check. No payment tool can eliminate that gap, but Altitude can make it less expensive to carry. Supplier payments move faster, incoming ACH transfers are free, and currency conversions come without added fees. The timing does not change, but less working capital is lost to fees, delays, and unnecessary steps.

The money waiting between payment cycles does not have to sit idle either. Altitude Rewards puts Raposa's treasury balance to work while it waits, adding to the international wire, ACH, and conversion fees the company avoids in the first place. For a lean brand operating on tight margins, those savings compound.

Andrew's bottom line is that Altitude is not a crypto product reserved for crypto companies. He recommends it to founders who have never used stablecoins because the value does not depend on understanding the infrastructure underneath. For a physical-product business, where payment cycles are long and every point of margin matters, that infrastructure simply makes the money work better.

TLDR takeaways