LatAm fintech Clara closes $60m equity financing round

Sao Paolo-based fintech Clara has raised $60 million in an equity financing round led by GGV Capital and made a number of executive hires from Meta, Nubank and American Express.

The end-to-end spend management platform for companies in Latin America saw participation from new investors Acrew Capital, Citius, Citi Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Ethos, Commerce Ventures, Goanna Capital, Bayhouse Capital, Fluent Ventures, and LAGO Innovation Fund.

Existing early investors monashees, Coatue, Picus Capital, DST Global Partners, Alter Global, General Catalyst, and more than 12 angel investors, also participated in this round.

The fintech will use the additional investment to boost the technological development of its spend management and payment platform, and also intends to consolidate its market leadership throughout the region.

Hans Tung, managing partner at GVV Capital, has joined Clara’s board of directors.

“GGV Capital is one of the world’s great venture investors, with a truly global mindset since inception.

“Hans, in particular, has been an ally to some of the greatest success stories of our generation. We jumped at the opportunity to welcome him to our board,” said Gerry Giacomán Colyer, Clara chief executive officer and co-founder.

In addition to the funding round, Clara has hired the former engineering manager at Meta, Raquel Hernández, as its new VP of engineering, while Eduardo Moore, formerly at Bitso and Nubank, has joined as director of product for Clara Brazil.

Alberto Ramos and Nicolas Caccaviello have been appointed as director of operations and revenue, and director fraud and acceptance, respectively.

Finally, Clara has appointed Tina Reich, previously chief credit officer at American Express, as board observer and risk advisor.

GVV Capital’s Tung added: “Expense management is a huge category globally, and Clara is the first to use software to build solutions in LatAm.

“The team had encountered spend management challenges as operating executives themselves and understood the problem well.”