Clara

Mexican unicorn Clara secures $60 million in Series B investment round

Clara, a Mexican fintech that provides corporate cards and other expense management solutions for businesses across Latin America, recently secured a $60 million investment in a Series B round led by GGV Capital.

The venture capital fund, which has already bet on Airbnb and invested in Mexican credit card unicorn Stori, will have a seat on the company’s board of directors, which Hans Tung, a managing partner of the firm, will fill.

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The round also saw the participation of new investment funds such as Acrew Capital, Citius, Citi Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Ethos, and Commerce Ventures, among others. And current partners such as Monashees, Coatue, and Picus Capital also joined the round.

Investing in engineering to scale up credit operations

The fintech operates in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil and has not released a new valuation following the recent capital fundraising.

“We are focusing on metrics that keep our business in a profitable model to scale,” Gerry Giacomán Colyer, CEO and Co-founder of the company, said in a statement.

Gerry Giacomán Colyer, Co-founder and CEO of Clara.
Gerry Giacomán Colyer, Co-founder and CEO of Clara.

Clara has more than 10,000 customers in Latin America.

According to the fintech’s CEO, the resources from the new investment will be used to reinforce the team of engineers and invest in developing new products.

Hans Tung, from GGV Capital, sees Clara’s team as very strong and bets on the growth of the operation in the region.

“They have built a leading company in Latin America, and the opportunities ahead are numerous. We look forward to supporting Gerry and his team in their mission to become one of the most impactful companies in the region,” the executive said in a statement.

Attracting investors in turbulent times

The recent capital raising comes just weeks after another successful investment round by the Mexican unicorn. In March of this year, the company secured $90 million in funding in a deal made with U.S.-based Accial Capital and the Colombian fund Skandia FCP Impacto.

The fintech has managed to grow and attract investors even in turbulent times for the technology sector.

In Mexico, the amount of venture capital investments oriented to startups fell 60.83% in the first three months of 2023, according to the Transactional Track Record (TTR) analysis platform.

Clara has secured $160 million in venture capital funding in the last two years.

  • Jorge C. Carrasco

    Jorge C. Carrasco is a Contributing Reporter at Fintech Nexus. He reports on fintech, economy, banking, startups, and technology, covering the most impactful stories from a Latin American perspective.

    He has contributed to several international publications, such as Foreign Policy, The Spectator Australia, Estadão, Época, Washington Examiner, and Quillette. Originally from Havana, Cuba, he is now based in Brazil.