Diego De los Ríos, Colombian Ex-Rappi Executive, Joins Clara to Lead Financing Company License Process

With extensive fintech experience, the executive will take on the role of Global Head of Operations.

Clara, Latin America’s leading solution for corporate expense management, announces Colombian Diego De los Ríos as its new Global Head of Operations. Among his responsibilities, he arrives with the challenge of leading the application to Colombia’s Financial Superintendence for a Financing Company license, a milestone he already achieved during his time at Rappi and one that will reinforce Clara as Latin America’s most robust business payments ecosystem. With this license, the fintech will be able to expand its payments ecosystem and bring to the local market products it already operates in other countries such as Mexico and Brazil, including ACH payments and accounts with highly competitive yield rates, all added to Clara’s payments management technology platform while it continues to offer its leading expense management and corporate credit card solution.

Operating in Colombia since 2022, Clara reaffirms with this step its long-term commitment to the Colombian market, aligning its growth with the local regulatory framework to continue meeting business needs safely and reliably. At the same time, the company is exploring alliances with banks in the country.

“Given our rapid growth in the Colombian market and our commitment to being the most complete payments ecosystem for companies, this will be a key step in the evolution of our product and its features,” says Leonardo Ramos, Country Manager of Clara in Colombia and Mexico.

In this context, Diego plays a central role, as he was responsible for leading the same process at RappiPay, where he obtained the license in record time.

“This license will be a very important milestone for Clara, giving our clients even more confidence in our payments ecosystem. Seeking authorization demonstrates our long-term commitment to Colombia, as well as our determination to operate according to the highest quality and security standards set by the most relevant regulatory institutions,” De los Ríos highlights.

In addition to his proven experience at companies such as Rappi and VivaColombia, Diego brings a solid academic background, with a degree in Industrial Engineering from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and an MBA from Duke University in the United States.

“We are very excited about what Diego De los Ríos’s arrival means for Colombia. In the past year we adopted a similar approach in Brazil, where we obtained a license to operate as a Payment Institution, and we have reaped good results, with strong adoption of the products that emerged from this regulatory recognition,” concludes Gerry Giacomán Colyer, CEO and co-founder of Clara.

Complementing Diego, several of Clara’s global C-level leaders are Colombian: Carolina Astaiza (People), Juan Zuluaga (Product) and Leonardo Ramos (Country Manager for Mexico and Colombia).