Cledara Limited (“Cledara”), a leader in the SaaS Management market, today announced it has been selected to join Mastercard Start Path, an award-winning global engagement program for fintech innovators.
“We are humbled to be among the companies selected for Mastercard Start Path,” said Cristina Vila, CEO and co-founder of Cledara. “With the growth and ubiquity of cloud applications across the business landscape, Cledara helps companies make sense of their disparate SaaS portfolio with one simple tool. Partnering with the Mastercard team will help us accelerate our mission to help every company be successful users of SaaS”.
Start Path is Mastercard’s award-winning startup engagement program that brings together a network of innovators from across the globe to shape the future of commerce together. Mastercard’s highly selective program immerses hand-picked later-stage startups like Cledara in Mastercard’s global ecosystem. Launched in 2014, startups that joined Start Path have gone on to raise over $3.8B in capital investment post program.
Cledara’s acceptance into Mastercard Start Path represents a pivotal moment for Cledara, which recently closed the largest seed round in 2020 for a female-founded fintech in the UK. In addition, Cledara was named one of the ‘Hot 10’ in the 2020 fintech 50, best European SaaS startup at SaaStock, winner of the Women in Payments 2021 EMEA Unicorn Challenge and one of the top 4 female founded enterprise SaaS companies outside of the US by Melinda Gates fund Pivotal Ventures and M12.
“As the fintech landscape evolves at an unprecedented speed, Mastercard provides the infrastructure and assets to help fintech innovators grow and ultimately bring more people into the digital economy,” said Amy Neale, Senior Vice President, Fintech & Enablers. “Through Mastercard Start Path, we’re partnering with Cledara on their path to scale and providing the technology, expertise and resources to help drive a more inclusive economy.”
In addition to receiving operational support, bespoke training and technology expertise, Cledara and all Start Path companies are exposed to a deep network of innovators across Mastercard’s ecosystem who collaborate on solutions that aim to solve major challenges in payments and technology.
With the support of Mastercard’s team of experts and extensive contacts in the industry, Cledara plans to further expand its footprint in the existing UK and European market as well as bring its SaaS management capabilities to new geographies