The Mexican fintech company Clara achieved unicorn status after raising US$70 million in a Series B led by Cotaue, who has also invested in TikTok, Deel, and Bitso.
Other participating investors included DST, monashees, General Catalyst, Avid Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Alter Global.
Clara, which offers corporate credit cards and expense management resources, has seen unprecedented development. They have grown 2x monthly by relying on allies such as Mastercard. Less than a year after their foundation, they have joined other Mexican companies that became unicorns in 2021: Clip, Bitso, Konfío, and Kavak.
Clara Goes Beyond Mexican Borders
With this financing round, Clara announced their expansion to Brazil. They already have 40 employees and 100 customers there, including Kavak.
The South American country is the leader in terms of fintech companies, both in money invested and amount of companies, so the Mexican startup will reach a key market. However, Gerry Giacoman, Clara’s cofounder and CEO, has stated that Clara still has a lot of opportunity to offer its services to different companies.
Undoubtedly, Clara is the first success story in Mexico in a sector that has high growth potential. Rubén Galindo, CEO of CapitalTech, explained exactly that to Contxto last October.
The new capital investment will also be used for Mexican fintech to accelerate its expansion throughout Spanish-speaking Latin America. It seeks to reach Chile, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, and Panama; and to improve its existing services in Mexico and Brazil.
So far, Clara has more than 2,000 clients, many of whom are prominent regional startups: Jüsto, JOKR, Casai, and Sofía Salud. They also have more than 10,000 cards in the market, and seek to increase their number of clients fivefold by 2022.
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