Spend Management Startup Clara Ends $30 Million Funding Round

Clara has closed a new funding round for $30 million, according to a report from Yahoo Finance, and it has also gotten down a $50 million revolving debt facility.

The startup provides corporate cards for Mexican companies. It raised funds earlier in 2021 as it was beginning to launch its product.

The report says Clara has had a value of around $130 million in the wake of the latest investment.

DST and monashees have been added to Clara’s capitalization table (cap table), and existing investor General Catalyst has added to the pile as well.

Gerry Giacomán Colyer, co-founder and CEO at Clara, said the success could be attributed to the growth and market, which allowed it to raise easily.

With the debt the company received as part of its recent funding round, Clara could better underwrite customers and not have to work off its own balance sheet.

Clara has been growing in its home market of Brazil. And the report noted that the company’s success could continue in the wake of the sale of Divvy, a competitor in the same area.

Clara has also been seeing double week-over-week growth, the report said, which could attract venture capitalists. And the report also said Clara makes revenue from interchange fees which stem from transaction volume.

Latin America is seeing something of a boom in FinTech innovation, with startups from countries like Mexico, Chile and others seeing success in things like payments digitization and financial management automation.

Funding for that region has been on the up and up as well — the Latin America Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LAVCA) said the numbers had more than doubled between 2018 and 2019 to $4.6 billion. And the 2020 figures, while not available yet, could end up being in similar ranges. Clara is one of those targets, with $3.5 million funneled to it as part of a seed round.