Clara, a corporate expense management startup, reported that it raised $80 million in equity and growth funding during Web Summit Rio.
The capital raised is an extension of its previous funding and included participation from diverse investors such as Acrew Capital, Alter Global, Citi Ventures, Citius, Coatue, Commerce Ventures, DST Global, Endeavor Catalyst, Evolution Ventures, Gaingels, Kaszek Ventures, Monashees, Moore Strategic Ventures, Notable Capital and Picus Capital. In addition to growth funding from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund.
A significant portion of the capital will be used to scale the commercial team and support efforts to strengthen the company’s presence in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, according to a statement. Clara’s team currently totals more than 300 people, most of whom are in Mexico, a company spokesperson told Contxto.
With the new funding, Clara also has a particular focus on accelerating growth in the mid-market and enterprise segments. Currently with more than 20,000 customers in Latin America and a transaction processed every second, Clara’s ecosystem is designed to automate financial operations with greater efficiency.
“This new round of financing will allow us to make the necessary investments to maintain this pace of growth, both today and in the future. In the short term, the CVF funding earmarked for sales and marketing is allowing us to expand our enterprise sales team-including presence in a dozen new cities in the region-and invest in new marketing initiatives,” Gerry Giacoman, CEO of Clara, told Contxto.
On the road to profitability
Clara’s offering – which includes corporate cards, invoice management, vendor payments, international payments and proprietary real-time expense control software – is seeing positive numbers.
In a statement Gerry Giacoman Colyer, CEO of Clara, said that in Brazil they reached monthly breakeven at the end of last year, and are close to achieving it also in Mexico as an independent operation.
“We have a fully funded business plan, and this raise – with the backing of our investors – allows us to bet more strongly on the opportunity and further accelerate growth. We are investing significantly in artificial intelligence internally and also have open positions in areas such as sales and engineering,” he explained.
Rapid growth
“Clara is on an accelerated growth trajectory. In fact, we were recognized by the Financial Times as the fastest growing company in Latin America and the second fastest growing company in the entire Americas, based on the presentation of our audited financial statements,” Giacoman said in a written response.
Launched in 2021, Clara has been among the fastest-growing Latin American startups. So far it had raised $492 million in debt and venture capital.
Just months after its founding by Gerry Giacoman and Diego Garcia, in March 2021 it received a $3.5 million seed round that boosted its startup. Two months later it announced that it closed a $30 million Series A round of funding. In addition to securing a $50 million revolving credit facility.
In December 2021 it received a $70 million investment round led by Cotaue, who has invested in tech companies such as Tik Tok, which brought Clara to unicorn status, i.e. a startup with a valuation in excess of $1 billion.
In August 2022 Clara disclosed that it obtained a $150 million credit line from Goldman Sachs, in a year in which Latin startups turned to this type of financing due to venture capitalists’ wariness of high interest rates.
Even as the venture capital ecosystem slowed, Clara received a large $60 million round in 2023 in a round led by GGV Capital.
At the time, from his office in Brasilia, Brazil’s capital, Giacoman, its CEO, told Contxto that “unlike 2021, when we raised three rounds of capitalization quickly, raising in 2023 required much more attention.” The investment was intended to double its presence in Mexico.
Also in 2023 Clara moved its headquarters from Mexico to Brazil after obtaining a license from the central bank to operate as a payment institution, which would boost its expansion in that country.
Clara told Contxto that Mexico is currently its main market, with Brazil slightly behind.
For the time being, the startup – which recently celebrated its fourth anniversary – continues to innovate in its ecosystem. It has just launched a series of AI-powered solutions to simplify the day-to-day life of financial teams, as well as vertical payment solutions such as VCNs – masked, highly configurable virtual card numbers – for the travel industry, and fuel cards for logistics-focused companies.
- Update, May 1: Added comments from Gerry Giacoman, CEO of Clara.
