Cenoa’s zero-fee digital dollar product to enter 35 new markets including the Middle East after raising US$7m in seed fund

Cenoa has raised US$7 million in seed funding to grow its operations to new markets in Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe. In addition, the company’s product development aims to add US Dollar-based debit cards and instant money transfer within the next 18 months. Funds will also be used to hire talent across different business functions – from product development to engineering – for its fully remote global team.

The fund raise was led by San Francisco-based venture capital firm Quiet Capital, Human Capital, Ulu Ventures, Acrew Capital, and Collective Spark – who have all invested in successful well-known global neobank and fintech unicorns.

Cenoa offers a borderless way to access a digital dollar products without any fees and earn an inflation-resistant yield. This compares to less than 1 percent in most traditional banks, which also take hefty fees and often require paperwork for simple currency exchanges. With the US Dollar at its strongest in 20 years, and emerging markets setting the highest USD saving demand, Cenoa’s non-custodial wallet is helping users make their assets devaluation-proof and increase savings growth.

Seçkin Çağlın, Founder and Co-CEO of Cenoa, said, “We believe in using modern technologies such as blockchain to provide one-click access to the digital dollar ecosystem to benefit the customers that need that access most – those in emerging economies lacking stable currencies like Argentina and Nigeria. People in these countries should be able to easily and affordably access US Dollars and beat inflation while saving, a function the traditional financial system has failed to provide.”

Created as a truly global solution, Cenoa is currently available across 35 markets. While still in its beta-testing phase with 1,000 private users, the company is already fully integrated with BiLira and Transak, which connect Cenoa with the local banking systems.

Cenoa’s target for the next two years is to onboard millions of customers worldwide and bring seamless local currency to dollar conversion to users. Built on blockchain technology, its non-custodial savings solution cuts out the costs for branches, intermediary fees, and other inefficient procedures of traditional banking.