aid: clinkle
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/clinkle.png
name: Clinkle
description: >-
  Clinkle was a Silicon Valley mobile-payments startup founded in 2012 by
  Stanford student Lucas Duplan. In 2013 it raised roughly $30 million in what
  was then reported as the largest seed round in history, backed by Andreessen
  Horowitz, Peter Thiel, Marc Benioff, Accel's Jim Breyer, Richard Branson, and
  Intel Capital. The company promised a phone-to-phone payments technology but
  never shipped a viable product, launched a poorly received "Treats" debit-card
  app, cycled through multiple pivots and leadership turmoil, and lost its window
  to Venmo and Apple Pay. By 2016 Clinkle had quietly shut down with no official
  announcement. It is retained in the API Evangelist network as a defunct a16z
  portfolio lead; it publishes no live website, developer portal, documentation,
  or API surface today (clinkle.com resolves to a suspended-account page).
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/clinkle/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- a16z
- Peter Thiel
- Accel
- Intel Capital
x-tier: stub
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead
x-status: defunct
x-defunct-year: 2016
x-founded-year: 2012
x-founder: Lucas Duplan
x-website-status: suspended
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-18'
tags:
- Company
- Payments
- Mobile Payments
- FinTech
- Peer To Peer Payments
- Defunct
- Startup
apis: []
common:
- type: Wikipedia
  url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinkle
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-19'
  status: backfilled
  pass: local-v1
  note: backfilled from .gitignore signal + verified work evidence