Spend Management Platform Clara Becomes Latam’s Fastest Unicorn

The Mexico City-based spend management platform Clara announced its launch in Brazil Monday (Dec. 6), an occasion marked by $70 million in new funding and a $1 billion valuation. 

As the company noted in its press release, that valuation comes just eight months after Clara’s launch, making it the fastest startup to reach unicorn status in Latin America. 

The funding round was led by Coatue, an investment firm that has backed tech companies like TikTok owner ByteDance, Deel, Ramp, Melio Payments, Mercury Bank, and the cryptocurrency exchange Bitso. As part of the deal, Coatue’s Michael Gilroy will become the first outside member of Clara’s board. 

Clara begins its operations in Brazil with nearly 100 corporate clients and a team of 40 people, offering customers “a solid and robust platform, thanks to its own license under agreement with Mastercard to operate without depending on third parties or sponsor banks.” 

The company says its license with Mastercard allows it to issue its own cards, accepted at businesses around the world. 

“We’ve been entrepreneurs and executives in companies that have operated across the region, so we know that the needs are similar in Brazil as they are in Mexico or Colombia,” said Gerry Giacomán Colyer, Clara CEO and co-founder. “Further, we have many customers that operate throughout these countries, and we’re thrilled to be their ally.”

Read more: How Open Banking Guides LATAM’s Spend Management FinTech 

This statement echoes comments Giacomán Colyer made earlier this year in an interview with PYMNTS soon after the company’s launch. 

He described how his own time as an entrepreneur helped field Clara’s focus on assisting other small businesses get greater control over their capital outflows. 

“We realized what a difficult time we had as a fast-growing company managing our finances,” Giacomán Colyer said. “The problems we were trying to solve with Clara are the very problems we experienced ourselves as entrepreneurs.”