Clara

Market position

Clara describes itself as a partner to leading Latin American finance teams and is referred to in press coverage as a Latin American unicorn; it reported working with 10,000 companies in 2023, more than 20,000 clients as of May 2025 and more than 40,000 companies on its website, and was named by the Financial Times as the fastest-growing company in Latin America in 2025.

Clara positions itself as an early mover in applying software to corporate expense management in Latin America, issuing cards locally in its markets, covering Brazil, Mexico and Colombia — described by its CEO as two-thirds of the region's GDP — and building payment products on Brazil's Pix instant payment system. It emphasizes direct integrations with regional and global ERPs and AI-supported controls and insights.

Technology

Clara's platform combines locally issued physical, virtual and single-use cards with AI-driven software: Clara Intelligence for real-time spend analysis, an AI financial analyst, automated expense validations, automated receipt-and-transaction matching, invoice data capture, and configurable card limits and approval rules. It maintains direct API and ERP integrations, has developed payment products on Brazil's Pix instant payment rails, and states compliance with ISO 27001 and PCI DSS 4.0.

Go-to-market

Clara sells directly to companies of all sizes, with segmented offerings for startups, small business, mid-market and enterprise customers, and has stated it is using new capital to expand its commercial and sales teams and to deepen adoption among medium and large enterprises. It has also built partnerships with financial institutions for lending capacity and integrates with widely used ERP and travel-and-expense platforms as a distribution and adoption channel.

Finance teams at companies across Latin America, spanning startups, small businesses, mid-market and enterprise segments, with a stated commercial focus on medium and large enterprises; travel-related payment products target companies managing corporate travel spend. Named customers include Smart Fit, VTEX and Grupo Bolsa Mexicana de Valores.

Geography

Clara operates across Latin America with dedicated market presence in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, plus a global/other-countries offering. It was originally based in Mexico and later moved its headquarters to Brazil after receiving a Brazilian payments institution license.

History

Clara was founded in 2021 and launched its product that year. It raised pre-seed funding in March 2021, followed by a seed round and Series A in 2021 and a $70 million Series B led by Coatue the same year. In 2022 it secured credit commitments of up to $150 million from Goldman Sachs, and in March 2023 a further $90 million from Accial Capital. In April 2023 it announced a $60 million Series B extension led by GGV Capital, bringing total equity financing to $160 million, with GGV managing director Hans Tung joining the board. The company relocated its headquarters from Mexico to Brazil after obtaining a payments institution license there, and in May 2025 disclosed an additional $80 million of equity and growth financing.