Clara Scales Credit Operations in Hypergrowth With Automated Risk Decisioning
3×
faster client onboarding response times
3-4×
increase in throughput capacity
24 hours
SLA turnaround time
About
Clara
Clara is the leading corporate spend management solution in LATAM. Its platform, designed to automate financial operations and deliver an unparalleled level of control and efficiency, includes corporate credit cards, invoice management, bill payments, cross-border payments, and proprietary real-time expense management software. Founded in 2021, Clara already serves 20,000+ companies across the region and has scaled to 400+ employees. With rapid demand across three markets, Clara needed an underwriting and risk decisioning solution that could keep pace with their growth, without relying on manual processes that slowed throughput.
Use Case/s
Credit Underwriting
Industry
B2B Spend Management & Fintech
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The Challenge
Scaling Manual Processes in Hypergrowth
Clara's rapid growth quickly exposed the limits of its manual underwriting process. Underwriters were spending hours per application collecting documents and pulling data from multiple sources, which made it difficult to keep pace with rising demand from enterprise and mid-market clients. At the same time, competing fintechs in LATAM were offering faster credit decisions, putting Clara at risk of customer churn.
"We always knew we’d need a risk decisioning engine, but the breaking point came when growth outpaced our manual processes. That’s when it became urgent," explained Gustavo Bottegoni, Global Director of Credit Risk at Clara.
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The Solution
Harnessing the Power of AI for Underwriting
Clara evaluated building a solution in-house and testing multiple vendors. Other platforms required significant engineering lift or offered fragmented tooling. Oscilar provided a true all-in-one platform that was fast to implement, easy to test, and required minimal developer involvement.
Oscilar's sandbox testing environment allowed Clara to validate models safely before going live, while joint working sessions with the Oscilar team ensured alignment and rapid iteration.
"Other solutions looked powerful but required too much engineering effort. With Oscilar, implementation was far more straightforward," said Gustavo Bottegoni. Oscilar also provided a sandbox testing space that allowed Clara to validate decisioning models in a safe environment before going live. "The sandbox testing environment gave us confidence. We could experiment safely before going live — something competitors didn’t offer in the same way," he added.
The rollout at Clara was collaborative and iterative from the start. Multiple calls helped align cross-functional teams, ensuring that priorities and requirements were clearly defined. "The responsiveness of the Oscilar team has been outstanding," explained Bottegoni. “They’ve been with us at every step, helping us shape the solution to fit our needs.” Reflecting on the implementation, Bottegoni described it as "cutting-edge" and emphasized "With Oscilar, we’re not just implementing a product, we’re writing the playbook for how this should be done."
"With Oscilar, we're not just implementing a product, we're writing the playbook for how this should be done."
Gustavo Bottegoni
Global Director of Credit Risk
Clara
Results
With Oscilar, Clara achieved immediate improvements across its underwriting operations. Average application review time was reduced significantly, resulting in 3× faster onboardingand 3-4× higher request volume capacity, without the need to add headcount. Service-level agreements are now consistently met, and enhanced risk and fraud detection capabilities have strengthened confidence from sponsor banks.
Fast, Scalable Underwriting
Application review time reduced from hours to minutes, improving consistency and speed. Onboarding is now 3x faster, translating directly into smoother, more responsive customer experiences. At the same time, throughput expanded 3-4x without increasing headcount, allowing Clara to support rapid growth without operational strain.
Improved SLA Performance
Oscilar supports consistent 24-hour turnaround times, even during peak demand, strengthening relationships with enterprise and mid-market clients.
Deep Integration & Automation
15 external integrations developed by Oscilar connected decisioning workflows to third-party data sources, easing Clara’s engineering burden. 700K+ real-time decisions are processed under 800ms, ensuring speed and reliability at scale.
Empowered Risk Team with No-Code Tooling
Clara’s risk team independently built more than 80 workflow versions using Oscilar’s no-code drag-and-drop interface, achieving true operational autonomy without relying on engineering.
Enhanced Risk & Fraud Detection
AI-driven document validation and third-party integrations increased fraud detection accuracy, boosting sponsor bank confidence and reducing manual inspection.
Operational Efficiency Gains
Automation with Oscilar is equivalent to multiple full-time underwriters, enabling teams to focus on complex, higher-value cases.
“Oscilar unlocked new opportunities for us. It allowed us to go after customer segments we couldn’t serve before.”
Gustavo Bottegoni
Global Director of Credit Risk
Clara
Looking Ahead: Scaling Without Bottlenecks
Clara views Oscilar not just as a credit underwriting tool but as a foundation for continuous risk monitoring. The platform enables real-time fraud detection, proactive monitoring of unusual patterns such as chargebacks or compliance breaches, and the confidence to expand into higher-growth, higher-risk segments while maintaining strong oversight.
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