Clara

About Clara

Clara is the leading corporate expense management platform in Latin America. The company has earned its place in a space where more and more businesses are looking for something very clear: better control over their finances without making daily operations heavier. And in real life, that matters a lot. Clara offers complete financial solutions for companies. These include free physical and virtual credit cards, tools to simplify third party payments through Clara Pagos, and short term financing lines that help companies organize their financial strategy. This is especially useful in markets like Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, where liquidity, control, and financial visibility can completely change the conversation in a leadership meeting.

Founded in 2020, Clara grew very quickly with the support of global and regional investors. That growth helped it become one of Mexico’s fastest growing unicorns in recent years. Of course, growing that fast looks great in a presentation. But inside the company, it also brings real pressure: more people, more processes, more countries, more questions, more payroll, and more moving pieces that, if they are not organized in time, can start making noise like a drawer full of coins. Today, Clara operates in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia with a clear vision: to help companies work with more agility, control, and financial clarity through high quality technology. But to keep that promise externally, Clara also needed to take care of what was happening internally, especially around talent management, payroll, and People Operations.

What problems were they facing with payroll?

From its early days, Clara was clear that its payroll and Human Resources processes needed to work the same way as its business: efficiently, transparently, and with a good experience for people. It sounds obvious, but when a company grows fast, keeping that in place is not always easy. Operations move, teams change, new people join, more questions come up, and if payroll is not well organized, what should be a normal process can end up eating valuable hours from the team. For a fast growing company, having a reliable partner that could support expansion without adding operational friction was key. The idea was not to let People Operations become a bottleneck. It was also not to have the internal team putting out administrative fires every pay cycle. The challenge went beyond automating payroll. Clara needed information to be available, clear, and easy for employees to check without having to ask everything by email or chat. Payroll receipts, IMSS related information, and incidents had to be within reach. And, of course, all of this had to meet the quality and compliance standards required when operating in Mexico.

Because in Mexico, payroll does not leave much room for mistakes. One wrong detail, one unchecked incident, or one missing receipt, and suddenly HR has a virtual line of questions that feels like a Monday morning at the bank. As Gerry Giacomán, Co Founder and CEO, shared, Clara needed a solution that could grow with the company and allow the team to focus on the business, not on solving administrative processes. That idea sums up something many CEOs and Human Resources teams know well: when a company scales, internal operations cannot be running in flip flops while the business is moving in running shoes.

How has Runa helped them?

Runa became a key piece in helping Clara maintain operational efficiency across its People Operations processes, especially during moments when growth tends to put strong pressure on internal teams. The platform allows Clara to automate payroll and give each employee their own access. From there, every person can easily check payroll receipts, IMSS related information, and different incidents without depending on the administrative team for every question.No need to send messages like, “hey, can you share my payslip?” No turning People Operations into an endless service counter. That visibility gave the team more autonomy. And when people have more clarity, repeated doubts also go down: fewer operational questions, less manual follow up, and fewer lost files in folders named “final final now yes.”

For Clara, this helped improve the team experience and free up time inside People Operations. Time that can now be used for more strategic work: culture, development, hiring, retention, and talent planning. These are the things that actually move the business forward.Ease of use and clear information were important points in helping Clara sustain its pace of growth. Because when the business moves fast, internal processes need to move at the same speed. It is not about having technology just to have technology. It is about making the operation work without everything depending on one person who knows where “the good Excel file” is saved.

Why did they choose Runa?

Clara chose Runa from its first day of operations in Mexico. It was not a random decision. It was a bet on a close, long term collaboration that could support the company from its early stages and keep pace as it continued to grow. Beyond the technology, Clara valued the quality of support, personalized communication, and the feeling that Runa works as an extension of the internal team. And for Human Resources, that matters a lot. Because a platform can look great in a demo. But in real operation, what matters is that it responds, understands the context, helps when questions come up, and does not leave the team alone when payroll closing is near and everyone wants answers yesterday.

Thanks to this collaboration, Clara can run all its payroll processes together with Runa, with order, visibility, and efficiency in every cycle, without losing agility. For the company, this means having a stronger operational foundation while it continues growing across the region. It also allows Clara to focus on what matters most for the business: continuing to innovate in financial products, strengthening its presence in Latin America, and maintaining its leadership in corporate expense management. All with the peace of mind that its internal operation is well supported. Because in the end, growing fast is not only about selling more or opening new markets. It is also about making sure the house does not fall apart inside like a card castle on a windy day.