In this conversation, he also reflected on his career path, highlighting the importance of adapting to the cultural and regulatory differences in each country. He emphasized the key role of technology, agility, and specialization in Clara’s growth. Don’t miss it!
Leonardo Ramos,“The founders established the company’s values even before having a business plan.”
Country Manager of Clara for Mexico and Colombia.
From Linio to Clara: Leonardo Ramos’ professional journey in Mexico
The executive recalled his beginnings at Linio, an e-commerce company competing with giants like Amazon and MercadoLibre. There, he led the customer and seller experience across Latin America. “As close as we may be (between different countries), we have totally different policies and currencies, and that has captivated and inspired me”, Leonardo confessed.
Later, the adventure continued at Grin Scooters, the first micromobility startup in the country. This company eventually operated in more than seven countries and thirty cities. “It was a project ahead of its time”, he stated. Five years ago, when Clara was just a PowerPoint presentation, Leonardo decided to join the project. “This is one of those opportunities where the train only passes once. You take it or leave it. Fortunately, after five years, I’m now Country Manager, developing Clara’s entire ecosystem in the region.”
Technology and agility for modern companies
Our guest explained that Clara is the place where any company can manage and make corporate payments with agility and financial clarity. “We combine financial products with technology”, he summarized. The company is defining its own category in the region, applying artificial intelligence and what they call “transactional intelligence” to learn and deliver value to its customers.
Culture, goals, and real solutions: the secret to success
When talking about Clara’s growth and unicorn status, Leonardo was clear: “The founders established the company’s values even before having a business plan.” In startups, corporate culture can be difficult to communicate, but at Clara it has been the foundation.
In addition, their results-oriented approach is total: “We’ve known what we want from day one and provided the necessary resources to achieve it.” And, of course, solving a real need: “We don’t create something just to see if it works; we solve a need we experienced ourselves as entrepreneurs.”
Efficiency and talent: growing without overstaffing
One of the aspects that most interested Juanjo was how Clara managed to multiply its business tenfold without increasing headcount at the same rate. Our guest explained simply: “We always ask ourselves: is this something I should solve through technology, efficiency, processes… or does it really require human intervention?”
They prefer to take the time to analyze whether a new position is truly needed before hiring: “Because we’re impacting lives. We see people as multipliers of the good we do”, he stated. This way, they’ve built a stable, diverse, and experienced team, distributed across more than 20 countries.
Innovation and vertical specialization
A single solution doesn’t work for every region, and not all companies can stretch to make it fit. At Clara, every new project begins with market and financial analysis, accompanied by legal evaluation. Leonardo admitted: “In my early experiences, I saw many projects fail for not involving finance or legal from the start.”
New projects are incubated in multidisciplinary teams. “One-size-fits-all no longer works. You have to specialize, create tailored solutions, and adapt to each country”, he explained. The difference between Mexico and Brazil, for example, is vast when it comes to taxes: “You can’t copy and paste, especially in that area”, he asserted.
Regulation: Latin America’s greatest challenge
Leonardo didn’t hesitate to name regulation as one of the region’s biggest challenges. “In Latin America, we are just kilometers apart, but miles away in terms of regulations, customs, and practices”, he declared. Each country has its own reality, from Mexico’s “super peso” (eight months ago) to the fiscal challenges in Brazil and Colombia.
To navigate this maze, Clara invests in hiring local experts, partnering with third parties, and participating in fintech and business associations. “We use adversity to our advantage and see opportunities where others see risks.” They ensure that experts help them face these different situations in the best possible way.
Artificial intelligence and data: Clara’s unique recipe
Product and innovation are among the Country Manager’s favorite topics. At the end of the day, companies need a unique value proposition to compete: “Credit cards have existed for years, and so have loans. But the technology that connects all these financial products is the secret sauce”, he said.
The company uses artificial intelligence to analyze the transactional universe of each company and detect optimization opportunities. “For example, if you have multiple employees paying for the same license, we’ll notify you that you could save 40 or 50% by negotiating a corporate contract”, he explained. “It’s hard for a financial executive to catch that detail, but our technology spots it in seconds.”
Another example he shared: “If a company pauses a marketing campaign and no one notices, Clara detects it and alerts them. We also identify if travel expenses double from one month to the next and flag it. That way, we help decision-makers act fast.” With one message, they can take action and improve business metrics.
Clara’s regional consolidation and analytical edge
The executive emphasized the strength of having a unified platform and processes across all the regions where they operate. “We’re the same company in every country, with the same platform and processes. That gives us financial integrity and intelligence that translates into value for companies.”
Unlike traditional banking, where each country’s entities operate in isolation, Clara offers a unified and consistent vision. “That allows us to deliver insights and actionable recommendations that make a real difference.” Juanjo noted that our fintech has deep expertise in this area and was interested in learning more about their technology.
💡 Leonardo Ramos said…
“If we, as an ecosystem, can go beyond simple credit history, we can help move the country forward.”
Strategic partnerships: Collaboration in the fintech ecosystem
According to Leonardo, Clara has three types of partnerships: with tech companies, traditional corporations, and banks. Partnerships with other fintechs are usually fast and complementary. One example is partnerships with HR companies.
They also collaborate with traditional companies, like Holcim, the world’s number one construction company. Lastly, they partner with banks, which recommend Clara’s services to their customers. “Here’s a fun fact: banks are our clients too. They use our technology—specifically, our cards”, Leonardo revealed.
ERP integration: All your information in one system
For CFOs, having all information in one system is fundamental. That’s why our Head of Marketing wanted to know how Clara manages ERP integrations, especially for companies operating across multiple countries.
According to their Country Manager, they have a specialized integration team that focuses on understanding the client’s needs. For simple integrations, they offer public APIs. For companies with more complex needs, they create a joint team with engineers from both sides to iterate and build custom solutions.
“We’ve created different paths where we can provide a very simple integration or build an entire infrastructure for large companies”, he concluded. Their model is a SaaS with flexible features, allowing them to serve the full range of possible customers.
Reaching the break-even point with financial discipline
After achieving profitability in Brazil, the fintech continues to consolidate its growth in Mexico and Colombia. Our interviewee emphasized that the mindset shift post-2022 was key: “Every dollar we invest must bring some return—and ideally, in the short term.”
Thanks to strict financial discipline, Clara has made smart investments, prioritizing channels with better CAC Payback (the time it takes a company to recover customer acquisition costs) and developing profitable products like Clara Checkout, Reimbursements, and Invoice Recovery, currently their most successful innovation.
As for expansion, Clara is focusing on deepening its presence in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, where nearly 70% of the region’s GDP is generated. In the short term, they will launch new solutions for the travel industry and fleet fuel management.
The future of the fintech universe in LatAm
To wrap up the interview, Juanjo and Leonardo talked about the growth of Open Finance as a real engine for financial inclusion. Our guest emphasized: “If we, as an ecosystem, can go beyond simple credit history, we can help move the country forward.”
At Coinscrap Finance, we trust that this vision will soon become a reality. In the meantime, we’ll continue to follow how Clara keeps innovating to become the strategic partner of choice for companies in Latin America.
Don’t miss the next episode of The Fintech Podcast! Coming soon on your favorite platforms: YouTube and Spotify. We’ll share all the updates on our LinkedIn profile.
