Fintech

Caliza lands $8.5 million to bring real-time money transfers to Latin America using USDC

Comment

Caliza's team
Image Credits: Caliza

Real-time payments are becoming commonplace for individuals and businesses, but not yet for cross-border transactions. That’s what Caliza is hoping to change, starting with Latin America.

Founded in 2021 by American entrepreneur Ezra Kebrab, who now lives in São Paulo, Brazil, Caliza offers an alternative to transfers made via SWIFT, which are the norm in the Americas but can take days to settle. 

Instead, Caliza provides an API and front-end payment system that use crypto stablecoins — specifically, Circle’s reserve-backed USDC — and existing real-time payment networks to allow for instant transfers and provide international merchants with U.S. digital dollar accounts.

The startup declined to name its clients, but said they are either banks or fintechs keen to better support businesses transacting internationally, as well as individuals for functions like remittances and payroll.

The firm just raised an $8.5 million round of funding led by Initialized.

Kebrab doesn’t come from a crypto background himself: His previous role was at Visa, which is where he saw how businesses needed faster transactions, especially in Latin America. He gave the example of a company doing nearshoring in Mexico: If production doesn’t start until the upfront payment clears, each day of delays costs money.

Mentioning Mexico was no accident, as Caliza plans to expand there in the fall. That’s a few months later than planned. Kebrab didn’t say why, but mentioned the company’s focus on meeting regulatory and compliance standards, which also involves getting licenses. 

For now, most of Caliza’s team of 10 people is based in Brazil, where it plans to double its workforce thanks to its new round of funding. The startup is also following through with its previously announced local launch.

Brazil is no newcomer to real-time transactions. Its digital payments scheme, Pix, which is similar to India’s UPI, has become so ubiquitous that even coconut vendors accept it, Kebrab said. 

But cross-border transactions are a different beast. Europe solved most of that problem with the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), but the Americas are far less integrated, making it less likely for Caliza to get disrupted by a similarly better alternative to SWIFT.

Caliza itself is looking to help incumbents, rather than disrupting them. “You will always have banks that will be intermediaries regulated by governments,” Kebrab said. But he thinks his company is also here to stay, hence its name; in Spanish, “caliza” means limestone, a reference to the material many long-lasting buildings are made of.

Currency volatility has been a cause of concern in Latin America. The Brazilian real has weakened around 13% against U.S. currency this year, and 6% in June alone. 

This kind of volatility ties well with Caliza’s stated mission to “empower everyone, regardless of their location or circumstances, to access instant and stable liquidity.” The bit about location also suggests Latin America is just the start. Since Kebrab is the son of Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants, Africa could be a logical next target.

The firm had previously raised $5.3 million in 2021. The new round is led by Initialized, with participation from Abstract Ventures, Class 5 Global, Digital Currency Group, Kraynos Capital, New Form Capital and Quona, as well as fintech executives as angel investors.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that Caliza was Initialized’s first LatAm-focused investment. Caliza is headquartered in the United States, and Initialized has invested in other companies that do business in Latin America, according to a spokesperson.

More TechCrunch

Ola Electric, India’s largest electric two-wheeler maker, saw its shares rise as much as 20% on its public debut on Friday, making it the biggest listing among Indian firms in…

Ola Electric surges in India’s biggest listing in two years

Rocket Lab surpassed $100 million in quarterly revenue for the first time, a 71% increase from the same quarter of last year. This is just one of several shiny accomplishments…

Rocket Lab’s sunny outlook bodes well for future constellation plans 

In 1996, two companies, Patersons HR and Payroll Solutions, formed a venture called CloudPay to provide payroll and payments services to enterprise clients. CloudPay grew quietly over the next several…

CloudPay, a payroll services provider, lands $120M in new funding

The vulnerabilities allowed one security researcher to peek inside the leak sites without having to log in.

Security bugs in ransomware leak sites helped save six companies from paying hefty ransoms

Featured Article

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the…

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

A new “beta rabbit” mode adds some conversational AI chops to the Rabbit r1, particularly in more complex or multi-step instructions.

Rabbit’s r1 refines chats and timers, but its app-using ‘action model’ is still MIA

Los Angeles is notorious for its back-to-back traffic. Three events that promise to bring in millions of spectators from around the world — the 2026 World Cup, the Super Bowl…

Archer to set up air taxi network in LA by 2026 ahead of World Cup

Featured Article

Amazon is fumbling in India

Amazon’s decision to overlook quick-commerce in India is now looking like a significant misstep.

Amazon is fumbling in India

OpenAI’s GPT-4o, the generative AI model that powers the recently launched alpha of Advanced Voice Mode in ChatGPT, is the company’s first trained on voice as well as text and…

OpenAI finds that GPT-4o does some truly bizarre stuff sometimes

On Thursday, Box filled in a missing piece on its AI platform when it bought automated metadata extracting startup, Alphamoon.

Box adds crucial piece to its AI platform with Alphamoon acquisition

OpenAI has announced a new appointment to its board of directors: Zico Kolter. Kolter, a professor and director of the machine learning department at Carnegie Mellon, predominantly focuses his research…

OpenAI adds a Carnegie Mellon professor to its board of directors

Count Spotify and Epic Games among the Apple critics who are not happy with the iPhone maker’s newly revised compliance plan for the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Shortly…

Spotify and Epic Games call Apple’s revised DMA compliance plan ‘confusing,’ ‘illegal’ and ‘unacceptable’

Thursday seeks to shake up conventional online dating in a crowded market. The app, which recently expanded to San Francisco, fosters intentional dating by restricting user access to Thursdays. At…

Thursday, the dating app that you can use only on Thursdays, expands to San Francisco

AI companies are gobbling up investor money and securing sky-high valuations early in their life cycle. This dynamic has many calling the AI industry a bubble. Nick Frosst, a co-founder…

Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst thinks everyone needs to be more realistic about what AI can and cannot do

Instagram is rolling out the ability for users to add up to 20 photos or videos to their feed carousels, as the platform embraces the trend of “photo dumps.” Back…

Instagram is embracing the ‘photo dump’

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Anyone paying…

Lyft ‘opens a can of whoop ass’ on surge pricing, Tesla’s Dojo explained and Saudi Arabia pumps $1.5B into Lucid

Flint Capital just closed its third fund at $160 million. Its has a unique strategy for finding its limited partner investors. 

Flint Capital raises a $160M through an unusual fund-raising strategy

Earlier this week it emerged that the DPC had instigated court proceedings seeking an injunction against X over the data processing without consent.

Elon Musk’s X agrees to pause EU data processing for training Grok

During testing, Google DeepMind’s table tennis bot was able to beat all of the beginner-level players it faced.

Google DeepMind develops a ‘solidly amateur’ table tennis robot

The X account announced that its Premium+ subscription would now be “fully” ad-free, leading some to question how this change would affect creator earnings.

As X sues advertisers over boycott, the app ditches all ads from its top subscription tier

Apple has further revised its compliance plan for the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) rulebook, which, since March, has forced it to give iOS developers more freedom over how…

Apple revises DMA compliance for App Store link-outs, applying fewer restrictions and a new fee structure

The rise of neobanks has been fascinating to witness, as a number of companies in recent years have grown from merely challenging traditional banks to being massive players in and…

Chime and Dave execs are coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

If you visited the Wikipedia website on mobile this week, you might have seen a pop-up indicating that dark mode is ready for prime time.

How to enable Wikipedia’s dark mode

The home security company says attackers accessed databases containing customer home addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.

Home security giant ADT says it was hacked

The Looking Glass Pro has a 6-inch display and a foldable base. It shows spatial images like those created with the Apple Vision Pro and iPhone 15 Pro.

Looking Glass’ new lineup includes a $300 phone-sized holographic display

TikTok’s latest offering is capitalizing on the app’s ability to serve as a discovery engine for other media — something its users already take advantage of by sharing short clips…

TikTok partners with Warner Bros. to become a discovery engine for TV and movies

Cocoon is a new startup built on the belief that greener steel production and the creation of concrete slag doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition.

Cocoon is transforming steel production runoff into a greener cement alternative

SoundHound, an AI company that makes voice interface tech used by car companies, restaurants and tech firms, is doubling down on enterprise services by playing consolidator in a crowded market.…

SoundHound acquires Amelia AI for $80M after it raised $189M+

Seeking mental health support is a complex process, but some founders believe that using AI to formalize techniques like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help folks who might not have…

Feeling Great’s new therapy app translates its psychiatrist co-founder’s experience into AI

The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has confirmed that it’s carrying out a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon’s ties with Anthropic, after Amazon recently completed a $4 billion investment into the AI startup.…

UK launches formal probe into Amazon’s ties with AI startup Anthropic