Caliza Financial Technologies

Positioned as a financial technology firm, Caliza Financial Technologies Inc. supplies the foundational infrastructure for global businesses to conduct real-time payments and operate U.S. dollar accounts. The company was established in 2021 by Ezra Kebrab, who now serves as CEO. Kebrab's background includes roles at Visa, where he led the global fintech accelerator program, and at Intuit. This experience exposed him to the difficulties companies face when expanding internationally, primarily due to the lack of access to global accounts tied to the world's reserve currency, which inspired him to found Caliza.

The company's core offering is an Application Programming Interface (API) that enables client businesses—such as banks, fintechs, and money transfer operators—to embed its infrastructure into their own platforms. This allows them to offer digital dollar accounts to their end-users for saving and transacting. The service facilitates instant cross-border payments, representing a significant speed advantage over the traditional SWIFT system, which can take days to clear. To achieve this, Caliza's platform utilizes Circle's USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, for real-time settlement. This model is designed to address the high costs and complexity that often prevent financial institutions outside the U.S. from offering dollar-denominated accounts to individuals and small businesses.

Caliza operates on a B2B model, collaborating with regulated financial institutions to deliver its services. The company has established partnerships with entities like Banco Genial in Brazil, Banco Dondé in Mexico, and others to ensure compliance and operational integrity. Registered as a Money Services Business (MSB) with FinCEN in the United States, Caliza pairs a proprietary automated risk engine with oversight from its banking partners to manage compliance. The firm's revenue is generated from its financial software solutions, which include managing multi-currency accounts, global payments, and real-time foreign exchange operations. Caliza has successfully raised a total of $14.6 million over two funding rounds, including a $5.3 million seed round in 2023 and an $8.5 million Series A round in 2024, led by Initialized Capital. Initially launching in Brazil, the company plans to expand its operations into Mexico and is exploring markets in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Keywords: cross-border payments, financial infrastructure, digital dollar accounts, B2B fintech, stablecoin settlement, USDC, API platform, real-time payments, global treasury management, international transfers, emerging markets finance, currency exchange, payment processing, fintech-as-a-service, Latin America fintech, Ezra Kebrab, compliant crypto solutions, multi-currency accounts, foreign exchange API, international commerce enablement