---
title: "First Block with Gerry Giacomán Colyer, Co-founder and CEO of Clara"
description: "First Block features Gerry Giacomán Colyer, Clara’s co-founder and CEO, discussing the company’s founding, rapid growth, and expansion of AI agents for finance operations across Latin America. Clara’s bank partner shut down only months after launch, prompting the team to secure direct issuer licenses with Visa and MasterCard in two weeks and build more robust infrastructure from the outset. The episode connects that resilience to product-led growth: a self-serve onboarding flow supported more than 20,000 customers across three countries, from pre-revenue startups to the Mexican Stock Exchange. The company is now applying its transaction data across Latin American businesses to a financial analyst agent that automates policy enforcement and approval workflows. It also covers the founding lesson from a previous company’s financial-tooling difficulties, early milestones, scaling decisions, and a roadmap across markets, alongside questions about efficiency, resilient infrastructure, and distinctive data advantages."
---

# First Block with Gerry Giacomán Colyer, Co-founder and CEO of Clara

[Notion](https://yomu.fyi/company/notion) · Anastasia Crew · Jan 21, 2026

**Type:** Explainer

## Summary

First Block features Gerry Giacomán Colyer, Clara’s co-founder and CEO, discussing the company’s founding, rapid growth, and expansion of AI agents for finance operations across Latin America. Clara’s bank partner shut down only months after launch, prompting the team to secure direct issuer licenses with Visa and MasterCard in two weeks and build more robust infrastructure from the outset. The episode connects that resilience to product-led growth: a self-serve onboarding flow supported more than 20,000 customers across three countries, from pre-revenue startups to the Mexican Stock Exchange. The company is now applying its transaction data across Latin American businesses to a financial analyst agent that automates policy enforcement and approval workflows. It also covers the founding lesson from a previous company’s financial-tooling difficulties, early milestones, scaling decisions, and a roadmap across markets, alongside questions about efficiency, resilient infrastructure, and distinctive data advantages.

## Context

Clara’s founding motivation came from watching a previous company struggle without proper financial tools. Months after Clara launched, its bank partner shut down, creating an early crisis that shaped the company’s infrastructure and operating approach.

## Approach / What changed

Clara secured direct issuer licenses with Visa and MasterCard in two weeks, built robust infrastructure from the outset, and scaled through a self-serve onboarding flow. It is now using transaction data from Latin American businesses to deploy a financial analyst agent for policy enforcement and approval workflows.

## Takeaways

- Clara obtained direct issuer licenses with Visa and MasterCard in two weeks after its bank partner shut down months after launch.
- A self-serve onboarding flow helped Clara reach more than 20,000 customers across three countries, including pre-revenue startups and the Mexican Stock Exchange.
- Clara’s financial analyst agent uses its transaction-data advantage to automate policy enforcement and approval workflows.

**Tags:** [AI Agents](https://yomu.fyi/topic/ai-agents), [Architecture](https://yomu.fyi/topic/architecture), [Fintech](https://yomu.fyi/topic/fintech)

- Source: [Notion](https://www.notion.com/en-gb/blog/first-block-with-gerry-giacoman-colyer)
- Source URL: https://www.notion.com/en-gb/blog/first-block-with-gerry-giacoman-colyer
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-09-09T05:21:07.537Z

[Read original post](https://www.notion.com/en-gb/blog/first-block-with-gerry-giacoman-colyer)