Clara Capital Hits $300M Milestone: How Fintech Automation Is Reshaping SMB Lending

Clara Capital has crossed a significant threshold, surpassing $300 million in total capital deployment to small and medium-sized businesses. This achievement reflects not just growth in scale, but a fundamental transformation in how the company operates—shifting from a traditional alternative lender into a fully integrated fintech platform built for speed and automation.

The Infrastructure Behind the Growth

What distinguishes Clara Capital’s expansion is the depth of operational upgrades supporting it. The company secured $20 million in credit capacity from Revere Capital and established a new treasury banking relationship with M&T Bank (NYSE: MTB), creating the financial backbone for increased lending velocity. Beyond capital, Clara has invested substantially in real estate and personnel, locking in a multi-year headquarters expansion in Woodbury, NY to accommodate rapid team growth.

More importantly, the company’s technology layer has undergone significant enhancement. Real-time application processing and automated funding calculations now enable decisions within seconds rather than days—a critical competitive advantage in the SMB finance space where businesses often need capital quickly.

Going Omnichannel: The ISO Strategy

To extend its market reach, Clara Capital recently launched a dedicated independent sales organization (ISO) vertical, complementing its direct sales force. This dual-channel approach allows partner firms to originate loans through Clara’s platform while maintaining a streamlined onboarding process and competitive compensation structure.

According to CEO Ryan Adwar, this expansion represents a strategic inflection point: “We’re moving from a single-channel lender to a diversified platform. The ISO channel gives us geographic and vertical penetration we couldn’t achieve through direct sales alone.”

Recognition and Market Position

The company’s trajectory earned recognition on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list, ranking among the top fifteen financial services firms in the United States. This placement underscores both revenue growth and operational maturity in a crowded market.

Clara Capital’s product suite includes merchant cash advances and customized financing options, addressing the specific cash flow challenges many SMBs face. The technology stack now handles full automation of application intake and bank statement verification, staged for underwriting review without manual intervention—reducing operational friction while scaling throughput.

CFO Matthew Byron emphasized the alignment between technological capability and business ambition: “Our infrastructure now supports our lending capacity. We’ve built systems that are fast, scalable, and accurate—setting a new standard for how fintech-enabled lending can operate.”

What’s Next

With multiple funding sources, expanded distribution channels, and increasingly sophisticated technology, Clara Capital is positioned in the competitive middle market between traditional banks and alternative lenders. The combination of capital, automation, and reach suggests the company is building toward sustained growth rather than a short-term expansion cycle.