Mexican fintech Clara expands Colombian customer base after fundraising

Mexican fintech Clara plans to increase its customer base in Colombia by 30% this year to 2,000 customers, after raising $90 million to expand operations in the Andean country, Leonardo Ramos (pictured), regional director of Clara Colombia, told BNamericas.

Other goals include reaching USD 100 million in transaction volume in the country by the end of the year and multiplying card issuance by a factor of three, according to the director.

The financing line of USD 90 million was provided by Accial Capital, an American debt provider with a focus on emerging markets, through the new private equity fund IMPACTO, launched in collaboration with Skandia.

Clara secured the line of credit before completing her first year of operation in Colombia and close to celebrating the third anniversary of the foundation.

The fundraising also comes at a time when many startups, especially those in the start-up phase like Clara, are struggling to raise money from private investors. The recent fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has added stress to the tech funding scene.

“The current situation did not significantly affect our talks with investors, since Clara has demonstrated a solid business model on a profitable basis and it is for these reasons that our value proposition continues to be attractive to various investors,” Ramos said when asked about the restrictive financing. scenario.

This is the second time in less than a year that Clara has received funding. In August 2022, Goldman Sachs gave the company USD 150 million in credit to increase operations.

While the funding is mainly aimed at Clara’s operations in Colombia, it also allows the fintech to channel other resources to consolidate and expand in Mexico and Brazil, mainly by attracting tech talent, Ramos said.

Currently, Clara Colombia has more than 1,300 customers, mainly distributed in technology and financial services, e-commerce, retail and tourism. It started its operations with a site in Bogotá and recently announced the opening of an office in Medellín.

While admitting that the current economic situation presents challenges, Ramos sees Clara as “well positioned” to overcome them.

“We are convinced that our company and our products will continue to be an attractive option for investors in the future,” the executive told BNamericas.

In addition to Accial, Clara is backed by investment funds such as Coatue, DST Global Partners, Monashees, Kaszek, A*, ICONIQ Growth, Box Group, Global Founders Capital, Canary Ventures, Picus Capital, Avid Ventures and SV Angel.

It also has dozens of angel investors, including Julio Rojas and Brynne McNulty, as well as Sebastián Mejía and Juan Pablo Ortega, the founders of Rappi.

“At Accial, we are excited to contribute to the growth of Clara, a company that has stood out as one of the most solid startups in the Latin American ecosystem. The market-leading solution has laid the foundation to help more companies in the region manage their expenses in a simple, fast and transparent way and access reliable and affordable short-term credit, Jared Miller, CEO of Accial Capital, said in a statement.