Resilience at Scale

Clip

By Consuelo Valverde
October 2025

Clip CEO and Co-Founder Adolfo Babatz.
“Eighty percent of transactions in Mexico are still made in cash. That represents a trillion-dollar market, but also a question of inclusion.” — Adolfo Babatz
A Market Waiting to Be Digitized

When Clip was founded, the premise sounded deceptively simple: make it easy for any business in Mexico to accept digital payments. What began with a small card reader in 2012 has become something far larger—a platform for commerce serving hundreds of thousands of merchants, and a force pushing to digitize the last major cash-based economy in the Americas.

For Adolfo Babatz, founder and CEO, the opportunity has always carried a double weight: a massive business case, and a historic responsibility. “Eighty percent of transactions in Mexico are still made in cash. That represents a trillion-dollar market, but also a question of inclusion,” he says. Access to credit, insurance, and other financial services, Adolfo argues, isn’t a luxury—it directly shapes quality of life alongside education and health. “If Mexico is to close its inequality gap, real financial inclusion is essential.”

Resilience at the Core

That sense of purpose has been paired with resilience. And for Adolfo, resilience captures Clip’s spirit best. The company has weathered shifts in funding cycles, competition, and the shocks of the pandemic. Its persistence has earned it the trust of merchants who once dealt only in cash, and who now see Clip not just as a payments company but as a partner in growth.

The platform has expanded well beyond card acceptance. Today, Clip offers four interconnected pillars: payments, financial services, growth tools, and software. Merchants can accept dozens of payment methods, access credit and accounts, drive revenue with services like mobile top-ups and bill pay, and adopt productivity software that was once out of reach for small businesses. The vision is clear: not to be a cost center, but a revenue generator for businesses.

Building Teams That Scale

Building a team capable of scaling with such ambition has been one of Adolfo’s greatest leadership lessons. “When a business is growing 100, 200, 300 percent a year, you need people who can grow at that speed. Very few can. That’s the hardest part as a founder—making the decisions when someone can’t scale, or when you yourself risk becoming the bottleneck,” he reflects. Beyond technical skills, he singles out emotional intelligence as the key trait that separates those who thrive. For him, leaders who are self-aware and able to grow with the company are the ones who can turn ambition into lasting impact.

For Adolfo, the real story of Clip is also the story of its people. “In the end, what makes or breaks a company is the team,” he says. His approach has been to trust leaders deeply, give them autonomy, and demand accountability. That philosophy has allowed Clip to attract individuals who can grow at extraordinary speed and who bring the emotional intelligence to match. Resilience, in Adolfo’s view, isn’t only Clip’s hallmark—it lives in the people who choose to build it alongside him. Their ability to adapt, scale, and bring empathy to the toughest challenges is what has carried the company forward.

Reinvention and the Road Ahead

Clip’s growth has also forced constant reinvention. The company endured the whiplash of hiring surges and cultural strain in the post-COVID years, but Adolfo believes new tools—from automation to AI—will allow startups to stay leaner and preserve stronger cultures over time.

Looking ahead, Clip’s path remains both ambitious and grounded. The company plans to keep expanding the range of payments it accepts, while also adopting new technologies as the market and its customers demand. It will deepen its role in financial services, help merchants generate more revenue, and close the productivity gap between small businesses and large corporations through accessible technology.

As Adolfo puts it, building Clip is less like running a sprint—or even a marathon—and more like an ultramarathon. The kind where resilience, not speed, determines who endures. At Clip, the digital revolution isn’t just about technology—it’s about the people behind it. Their resilience, empathy, and emotional intelligence form the true engine driving Clip’s role in Mexico’s leap into the future.