(Adds details about Colombia expansion)
By Gabriel Araujo
SAO PAULO, March 13 (Reuters) - Mexican unicorn Clara
has secured $90 million in fresh debt funding led by U.S. debt
provider Accial Capital, the company said on Monday, as it looks
to boost its expansion in Latin America.
The funds will help Clara, which offers corporate credit
cards and expense management solutions, increase its footprint
in Brazil, where it wants to more than double its customer base,
and Colombia.
The company, which is now valued at over $1 billion, says
Brazil is on track to become its biggest market by the end of
2024.
"We've been in the Brazilian market for over a year and we
see the operation continues to grow even faster than the
operation in Mexico did initially," Clara Chief Executive Gerry
Giacoman told Reuters.
Aiming to get its customer base in the country up to 5,000
companies from 2,000, Clara expects to quadruple the 600 million
reais ($114.98 million) processed on its corporate cards last
year, according to the firm.
Meanwhile in Colombia, where Clara has over 1,300 clients,
the money will help it establish a second office in the country,
located in Medellin.
The new funding marks the second debt facility secured in
less than a year by Clara, having announced a $150 million debt
line from Goldman Sachs in August 2022.
"It is important to have the right combination, the right
mix of capital," Giacoman said about Clara's recent bet on debt
financing over new equity rounds, having previously raised
capital from funds such as Coatue and monashees.
The executive noted that the move allowed the firm to
separate money used to increase liquidity solutions for
customers from that used to invest in team and products. But he
did not rule out new announcements on the equity side in the
future as well.
($1 = 5.2181 reais)
(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Josie Kao and Mark
Porter)
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