Fintech Infrastructure · Seed & Series A · New York

We back the infrastructure layer of financial services.

Caldo Ventures invests in the APIs, rails, and embedded finance platforms that make the modern financial system run. Seed and Series A.

$110M AUM 8 Portfolio Companies Fund II Deploying

"The infrastructure layer doesn't make headlines. It makes money."

Our Investment Thesis

Financial services runs on infrastructure most people never see.

Every fintech consumer app — the ones that get the press, the ones that raised at eye-watering multiples — is built on an API stack for identity, payment rails, data connectivity, card issuing, and compliance plumbing. These are not glamorous businesses; they are load-bearing. The consumer product is the storefront. The infrastructure is the foundation. We invest in foundations.

Rafael, Aisha, and Jonas spent a combined 30+ years building and running components of this stack at custodian banks, payment processors, and neobanks. We are operators who chose to become investors in the same layer we once operated. That means when a founder describes a technical architecture decision or a bank partnership negotiation, we're not pattern-matching against other investment memos — we're drawing on direct experience with the exact systems and constraints they're navigating.

What we look for: technical founders with a clear understanding of the regulated environment their infrastructure operates in; companies where the network or data asset compounds as scale grows; businesses where the unit economics improve structurally as penetration deepens. We're not looking for the next consumer fintech application. We're looking for the infrastructure that the next ten consumer fintech applications will be built on.

Investment Focus

Three layers. One thesis.

Payments & Rails

ACH/RTP infrastructure, card issuing and processing platforms, cross-border payment rails, BaaS platforms. The plumbing that moves value.

Financial Data APIs

Income, employment, liability, and payroll data connectivity. The intelligence layer that makes modern credit, underwriting, and account funding work.

Embedded Finance

Consumer lending, BNPL infrastructure, and financial products embedded in non-financial platforms. The layer that distributes financial services through existing user relationships.

Portfolio

8 companies building the infrastructure layer.

Partners

Operators, not observers.

Our partners spent 30+ years building the infrastructure we now invest in.

Rafael Mendez

Managing Partner

VP Payments Engineering at a global custodian bank. Head of Product for a clearing-and-settlement platform serving G-SIBs. Stanford CS / Wharton MBA.

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Aisha Nakamura

Partner

Director of Strategic Investments at a major US payments processor, led $200M+ in fintech infrastructure deals. Columbia MBA, Princeton.

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Jonas Eklund

Partner

GM of a regulated payments product at a top-five US neobank, scaled from launch to nine-figure revenue. JD Columbia / BA Yale.

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Fund History

Two Funds. $110M AUM.

Caldo Fund I

$35M

Status Fully Deployed
Close June 2019

Caldo Fund II

$75M

Status Actively Deploying
Close February 2023