Caliza, a Brazilian startup that enables banks and fintech companies to offer dollar savings and payments, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Better Tomorrow Ventures and Abstract Ventures with participation from Class 5 Global, Valor Capital Group, Quona Capital, Fontes by QED, Raba Capital, Rally Cap Ventures, and Digital Currency Group, along with founders and angel investors including GB Agboola (Flutterwave), Geoff Hayes (Compound), Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled (Chipper Cash), Diogo Mónica (Anchorage Digital), Ashton Braun (Silo), Misha Esipov (Nova Credit), Florian Hagenbuch, Mate Pencz and Andreas Scholten (Loft), Daniel Bilbao (Truora), Andres Bilbao (Rappi), Charles Delingpole (ComplyAdvantage), Michael Kent and Ricky Knox (Azimo), Michael Ovitz (CAA), Tikhon Bernstam (Parse), Jon Choi (Teleport), Jess
Founded in 2021 by Ezra Kebrab, Caliza's API infrastructure allows banks and fintech companies to offer their customers digital dollar accounts, real-time cross-border payments, and fiat-to-crypto on and off ramps. The company plans to use the funds to grow its team and build additional financial services, such as access to U.S. Treasury bills with on-demand liquidation capability and international credit cards. Caliza is currently offering its services in Brazil and plans to expand into Mexico by early 2024. Other countries across Africa and Southeast Asia are also part of its roadmap.
