Participated · Series A · Feb 2025

BRKZ operates a B2B procurement platform that aggregates suppliers and materials and offers flexible delivery and payment options including cash, cash-on-delivery and credit. Founded in 2023 by Ibrahim Manna, the company serves over 350 SMEs through a network of roughly 1,600 suppliers and lists more than 7,300 products. BRKZ is pivoting to become an industrial supply chain enabler by integrating artificial intelligence, cloud manufacturing and financing solutions. Its stated plans include improving factory productivity, expanding access to liquidity, increasing capacity utilisation and developing digital procurement systems across Saudi Arabia. The company recently secured a strategic investment from Saudi Industrial Investment Company and has previously raised capital from BECO Capital, BTV, Wa’ed Ventures and Class 5.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2024

Ziina began as a P2P bill-splitting app and has expanded into a two-segment platform: Ziina Personal and Ziina Business, offering payment links, a payment gateway, POS QR-code payments, social payments and basic CRM. The company supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, Mastercard and Visa, and integrates its gateway with platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify. Ziina charges straightforward fees (2.6%+1 AED for payment links and POS; 2.9%+1 AED for gateway transactions) and provides a dashboard for reconciliation. It reports 50,000 active retail and business users, 34% month-over-month customer growth over the last year, and revenues that have increased ten-fold year-over-year; transaction volume is on track to ~1.1 billion AED (~$300M) annualized. Growth has been largely product-led (about 55% organic acquisition) though the company is beginning to hire a sales team. With a Central Bank of the UAE stored value facility license, Ziina plans to expand financial services (including an upcoming ZiiCard and expense-management features) and to earn float on stored customer balances. Ziina operates a peer-to-peer payments wallet that lets users send and receive money using just a phone number, avoiding IBANs or SWIFT codes common in the UAE. The company is in the process of obtaining regulation and has a banking partner among the three largest banks in the UAE. Ziina launched a restricted beta and reports thousands of users who transacted more than $120,000 in the past month, plus over 20,000 people on a waiting list. The team includes alumni from Apple, Uber, Coinbase, Revolut, Stripe and others, and the founders intend to use growth capital to hire, acquire customers, and build commercial partnerships. Product roadmap includes expanding P2P payments across MENA and adding products such as remittances, investment and cryptocurrency services. The company plans geographic expansion into Saudi Arabia and Jordan in 2022, with Egypt and Tunisia targeted further out.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2024

Caliza offers an API and front-end payment system that routes cross-border transfers using Circle’s reserve-backed USDC and existing real-time payment networks to enable instant settlement. Its product gives international merchants U.S. digital dollar accounts and targets banks, fintechs, businesses (for payroll and supplier payments) and remittance customers. The startup was founded in 2021 by Ezra Kebrab, who previously worked at Visa and now lives in São Paulo; the company is headquartered in the United States and most of its 10-person team is based in Brazil. Caliza plans to expand into Mexico in the fall and intends to double its Brazil headcount with proceeds from the new round. The company emphasizes regulatory and compliance efforts as part of its expansion and licensing work. Its mission cites mitigating currency volatility risk in Latin America and expanding access to instant, stable liquidity. Caliza builds API infrastructure that lets banks and fintech companies embed digital U.S. dollar accounts, real-time cross-border payments, and fiat-to-crypto on/off ramps within their services. The company intends to use recent funding to grow the team and develop additional financial services such as access to U.S. Treasury bills with on-demand liquidation capability and international credit cards. Caliza currently offers its services in Brazil and plans to expand into Mexico by early 2024, with other countries across Africa and Southeast Asia on its roadmap. The platform enables customers to save and transact in U.S. dollars regardless of location and to exchange currency instantly. Founded in 2021 by Ezra Kebrab, the company emphasizes enabling customers to build wealth and move money in dollars via partner banks and fintechs.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2022

Vest operates a mobile-first brokerage app providing zero-commission access to stocks listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq for users across major Latin American economies and select U.S. states. The company also offers a market simulation environment, in-app educational content, and native multi-lingual support to help new investors learn and practice. Vest plans to expand beyond active trading to launch a passive investing product (robo funds) and crypto, with both active and passive products built into the same user interface. Its app is live on iOS and Android throughout Latin America and in U.S. states including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Washington and Puerto Rico. The platform currently integrates with U.S. local banking and is building direct local banking integrations in other major LatAm markets. Vest has grown to 36 employees and emphasizes an AUM-focused, long-term investing philosophy rather than promoting high-frequency trading.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2022

Penny Software provides a B2B SaaS platform that digitizes the entire source-to-pay process, including vendor management, spend analysis, and contract management. The company operates a marketplace facilitating B2B sourcing across multiple sectors. Penny positions itself to improve spend efficiency, governance, and compliance for enterprise procurement. The founders—Iyad Aldalooj, Majid Aldalooj, and Mohamad Ibrahim—launched the business in 2020. The company says it will use new funds to fuel regional and global expansion. Penny frames its mission as building a global business platform to rebuild and simplify trade. Penny Software offers a cloud-based procure-to-pay system that digitizes and manages the full procurement cycle from request to approval. The platform handles RFQs, RFPs, RFIs, quotation comparison, purchase orders, and payments, consolidating organizational spending into one intelligent system. Founded in 2020 by Iyad Aldalooj, Majid Aldalooj, Mohamad Ibrahim, and Hemadri Seelamsetty, Penny also operates a B2B marketplace in Saudi focused on digitizing sourcing and procurement for the construction sector. The company has been recognized by ProcureTech and Kearny Consulting as one of the top 100 most innovative procurement solutions globally. Penny has stated plans for global expansion. In January 2022 it raised $5.0M in a seed round.