VELMVellum Protocol8,420 waitlist KITEKite Ledger2,190 waitlist PLSDPalisade ID1,640 waitlist NRTLNorthlineDay 8 of 14 SABLSable RailDay 5 of 14 QULLQuill MarketsDay 11 of 14 CDWLCinder Well6,947 waitlist HRTNHartline8,787 waitlist OBSNObsidian Rail4,416 waitlist FENLFen Clearing1,060 waitlist LUMNLumen Books5,510 waitlist RDCTRedact ID6,485 waitlist HRBNHarbor NAV6,973 waitlist QLTDQuilt1,876 waitlist NMBMNimbus Match7,864 waitlist BRASBrass4,166 waitlist SLSTSolstice Credit9,342 waitlist WLTRWillow Transfer7,031 waitlist EMBREmber Registry2,487 waitlist NQAYNorth Quay2,013 waitlist KLNSKiln4,412 waitlist GLSHGlass HouseDay 8 of 14 IRNPIron PierDay 1 of 14 PLFRPale FireDay 3 of 14 VELMVellum Protocol8,420 waitlist KITEKite Ledger2,190 waitlist PLSDPalisade ID1,640 waitlist NRTLNorthlineDay 8 of 14 SABLSable RailDay 5 of 14 QULLQuill MarketsDay 11 of 14 CDWLCinder Well6,947 waitlist HRTNHartline8,787 waitlist OBSNObsidian Rail4,416 waitlist FENLFen Clearing1,060 waitlist LUMNLumen Books5,510 waitlist RDCTRedact ID6,485 waitlist HRBNHarbor NAV6,973 waitlist QLTDQuilt1,876 waitlist NMBMNimbus Match7,864 waitlist BRASBrass4,166 waitlist SLSTSolstice Credit9,342 waitlist WLTRWillow Transfer7,031 waitlist EMBREmber Registry2,487 waitlist NQAYNorth Quay2,013 waitlist KLNSKiln4,412 waitlist GLSHGlass HouseDay 8 of 14 IRNPIron PierDay 1 of 14 PLFRPale FireDay 3 of 14

POPZ

In market

IN MARKETPayroll rails

Poplar North

Skip it and you read a PDF. Counterparties who matter will have already called.

The window is a few days. After that Poplar North archives. Diligence does not reopen as a live conversation.

Poplar North — A routing layer in front of payment firms that already hold licences. One API picks the rail (SEPA, cards, local schemes) and can present a wallet-like checkout. The wallet is the interface. It is not a coin.

Live campaign. 905 on the product waitlist — that is demand, not an allocation.

Most Payroll rails applications this quarter were declined. You are looking at one that was not.

Diligence, not a prospectus. RCA Pad does not allocate, take orders, or close funding. If this company raises, it raises with its own counsel.

Waitlist

Window

Closed

Heat

0/99

Inbound / wk

0asks

Asking now

0live

Named pilots

Redacted on the public page

Live nodes

Payroll adapters

Counsel hours

Hong Kong · counsel-named

Sentences killed

Before listing

Claims live

8/9

Build

Our cut

Of any proceeds

Plate Concentric · 3792

POPZ

The plate

Concentric. Edition 3792.

A unique plate for Poplar North. Geometry, orbit, and edition belong to this company — no other listing on the board shares it.

POPZ · Hong Kong · Payroll rails

Score

Desk diligence

Pilots

Named, redacted

Waitlist

Product demand

Hong Kong

Licensed PSPs

Sells

Per-transaction

Per-transaction routing fee

Markets

Hong Kong

Years

Founded 2026

Surfaces

Payroll adapters

Complete

File readiness

The wedge

Per-transaction routing fee

Poplar North is betting that Hong Kong PSPs will buy routing as software rather than issue a coin.

Why the desk took it

A real job, not a ticker.

They walked in with a licensed PSP letter, not a token deck.

Traction

2 named pilots (redacted).

Founded 2026, headquartered in Hong Kong. 2 named pilots on file (identities redacted in public). 905 on the waitlist, gated — product demand, not a book built. 8 nodes or connected surfaces reported. Desk diligence score 91/100. A warehouse or port that has written a live event. A dual-control drill exists on paper. We have not watched it live yet — that is the next ask.

Next 12 months

Live routing in one named scheme. Everything else is a slide.

A L2 payments coin is the thing this file has already refused. They sell a fee the customer already pays a slower vendor for. TAM is that invoice, not a token float.

The brief

How a serious reader should hold this.

In Hong Kong, the person who signs the monthly pack already has a vendor. Poplar North is not asking them to believe in a token. It is asking them to move one job — the one that currently lives in a spreadsheet, a fax, or a person who is about to retire — onto a record that can be shown to counsel. The queue to read that record is already not empty.

What you can verify today is smaller than the slide. What you cannot verify is named as a question, not a promise. That is the difference between this company and a pad listing — and why the waitlist is not a coin queue.

US traffic was taken off the public surfaces in the first working session. Poplar North did not argue. Adult companies do not costume a US offering.

From counsel

This communication is not an offer. Participation mechanics do not exist on this pad. If a later reader treats the public stack as the offer, the stack was already wrong.

From the screen

US persons are outside the audience. A form that asks “are you accredited?” without verification is not an exemption.

From the founder

We will not describe this as Reg CA-compliant, MiCA-stickered, or FCA-authorised. Issuers retain their own counsel in every relevant jurisdiction.

The window

Miss this and you read the archive.

A later reader gets the same PDF. They do not get the same access.

Certification is in motion. After it lands, the price of the seat is not the question — access is.

The scarce thing is not the company. It is the next a few days of a live conversation.

Window

Closed

Closed. History only — not a place to buy.

Sentences killed: 5
Counsel hours on file: 75
Asks / week: 113
Our cut: 0% of proceeds

The auditor has seen the dual-record. Switching now is a new conversation. That is the lock.
Oskar Ng, Chief executive

This company

Poplar North

The copycats will arrive after certification. That is why the window is now.

In the same conversation

Modulr
Lemonway
Checkout.com routing
Not a L2 payments coin

The bet

Why this company exists.

Poplar North is betting that Hong Kong PSPs will buy routing as software rather than issue a coin.

MiCA is forcing PSPs to choose a perimeter. Houses that will not become CASPs still need programmable checkout. The ones that pick software over a coin will buy this. The ones that want a token will be declined here.

PSP orchestration in Europe is a multi-billion software market. Buyers already pay for routing. A token would not make the invoice larger; it would make the licence harder.

Versus the field

The incumbent brand sells the relationship. Poplar North sells the job the brand will not staff. A protocol pitch is the thing this company has already refused. Open-source looks free until the auditor asks who attests.

Hong Kong being the city does not make local retail a default audience. Communications capable of inducing investment activity still have a promotions problem.

How it works

01Payer or merchant hits a single checkout API
02The router selects a licensed rail the PSP already runs
03Account-abstraction is an optional UX layer (currently testnet)
04Settlement lands in the PSP’s existing accounts — no new token
05Exceptions (chargebacks, scheme rejects) post back into the PSP’s existing case system
06A named counterparty verifies; Poplar North does not attest to its own facts.

In the same conversation as

Modulr
Lemonway
Checkout.com routing
Not a L2 payments coin

If they raise

Where the money would actually go.

Not a token float. A budget against work. RCA Pad still takes 0% of proceeds.

Certifications & adapters
40%
Adapter work against the incumbent register, admin, or custodian.
Counsel & perimeter
18%
Dual-control drills, key ceremonies, and the person who owns them.
Second market
21%
A counsel memo that can survive a later reader.
Control environment
21%
Keeping the public story from running ahead of the claims register.

Operating week

What “in market” actually looks like.

SunOwnersWho can decide messaging and budget on a recorded line. If the answer is nobody, stop.
FriKill switchRehearse unpublish in 24 hours. If it takes a committee, it is not a switch.
WedCounselPerimeter diffs. If the site drifted from the memo, the site moves — not the memo.
SatDarkNo creators. No threads. Restricted geos stay dark.

The wedge

Why this one, not the other one.

They sell: Per-transaction routing fee
Who pays: A warehouse or port that has written a live event.
Unit economics: They sell a fee the customer already pays a slower vendor for. TAM is that invoice, not a token float.
Moat on file: ISO 20022 maps that took eighteen months — not a wrapper on Stripe.
Switching cost: Permissioned connectivity is the moat. Public endpoints would erase it.
Vs the comps: A L2 payments coin is the thing this file has already refused.
Why we listed it: They walked in with a licensed PSP letter, not a token deck.

Next twelve months

What has to be true.

Live routing in one named scheme. Everything else is a slide.

A dual-control drill exists on paper. We have not watched it live yet — that is the next ask.

A round, if any, sits with their providers. This pad does not take the order.

Traction

What you can verify today.

Operating notes for Payroll adapters
No token contract listed as a public sale
Named founder; customer still a conversation
Hong Kong is the operating centre
The waitlist, if any, is a product list — not a book
RCA Pad does not take a cut of proceeds

Readiness

Six things a serious buyer asks. 100 is “ready to take to counsel and a customer.”

Product62
Customers78
Legal path84
Tech maturity70
Demand45
Market access44

Risks

What can kill it.

The one that actually kills it

The named customer is a letter of intent

Pilots that cannot be named, even redacted, are theatre. One paying seat that an auditor has seen is worth more than a waitlist of 905.

Token temptation

If the wallet layer is ever described as a means of payment, the product becomes an e-money or CASP problem. This file treats that as a hard stop.

Perimeter

A supervisor can still read account-abstraction as issuing. Until counsel names the path, treat the AA layer as a lab.

Customer concentration

A handful of PSP design partners can stall the company if they slip. Ask who is paying, not who is ‘interested’.

United States

The US is out of scope on this file. That is deliberate. It also caps the TAM.

Scheme freeze

A card scheme can kill the router without talking to Poplar North. Concentration in one scheme is existential.

Single-customer gravity

If the first named buyer is also the only buyer, Poplar North is a services shop with a ledger. Ask for the second.

Ask these next

01Who is the first named paying customer — not a letter of intent?
02Which incumbent can copy this in a quarter, and what would they have to migrate?
03Who can unpublish a public sentence in 24 hours, by name?
04What does renewal look like if no round ever happens?
05What happens if a founder later wants a public token?
06Has counsel written the perimeter in a memo you can file?

Structure

How money would actually move.

If this company raises, it raises with its own counsel and providers. The waitlist is a product list. It is not a round, a book, or an allocation on RCA Pad. We do not take a cut.

Entity: Poplar North Ltd
Path on file: Hong Kong · counsel-named
Posture: Private only
Pack: Build

Where they can operate

Named vs off-limits.

Named markets are where a sentence is allowed. Restricted is where it is not. This is not a worldwide offering.

Hong Kongnamed
EU retailrestricted

Team

Who runs it.

Oskar NgChief executive

Stack

Payroll adapters
Payroll rails
Approval trail
Audit log

Named with them

Clearline
Meridian Tax

Who can decide

Oskar Ng (Chief executive) will take a 30-minute call and decide budget. If the only person who can accept “we are not opening a sale” is a silent co-founder in another time zone, this company would not be on the board.

A second counterparty writing into the record is the only network effect that counts. One customer is a consultancy. Two is a market.

Claims with evidence

Statements with evidence.

Statement	Evidence	Status
Poplar North does not sell a token to the public on this pad	Posture lock	live
The product is payroll rails sold to institutions	Architecture + customer type	live
Payroll adapters is the method — not a listed asset	Desk snapshot	live
Retail buyers are out of scope	Named markets lock	live
Any raise completes with the issuer’s counsel and providers — not on RCA Pad	Fixed-fee terms	live
Pilot identities redacted in public	No board minute	draft
No public token is sold on this pad	Engagement terms + posture lock	live
Customers contemplated: Hong Kong	Named markets on the file	live

On the record

Sprint packPackJun
Counsel lockPathJul
Claims register liveRegisterAug
Creator briefBriefSep

Operating log

11 Sep 09:34
Takedown SLA idle-tested.
08 Sep 11:40
A claim held for missing evidence.
04 Sep 08:22
Weekly report issued to the desk.
01 Sep 14:08
Creator set on disclosure. No buy language.

Path to now

Sprint
Pack accepted
Narrative, matrix, claims locked.
Path
Counsel names it
Or the file stays not-offering.
Live
Campaign
Waitlist and register. No purchase journey.

Not a subscription

This is not a sale page.

If this company raises, it raises with its own counsel and providers. The waitlist is a product list. It is not a round, a book, or an allocation on RCA Pad. We do not take a cut. Founders who want a pack like this one apply. Readers who want the company talk to the company — not to this pad.

Launch your own How an RCAICO works

Other companies

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