Fintech firm Clear, formerly identified as ClearTax, declared on Monday that it raised $75 million in a Series C funding round headed by Kora Capital, Stripe, Alua Capital, Think Investment and existing investors. The funds, it stated, will be used to quicken the company’s extension into B2B credit and payments divisions as well as to expand into the international market.
With the funding, Clear intends to take its product suite to the international business, which is also observing similar shifts in payments and credit. It aims to serve more than 10,000 large companies and 10 million small businesses over the next couple of years.
“India is on a massive digitisation journey, and we are fortunate to be in the perfect storm of electronic invoicing, GST, UPI, cheap mobile internet and rapid adoption of technology due to Covid-19. We are doubling down on our SaaS platform to help businesses with collateral-free debt and payments. This funding also gives us the fuel for our international expansion,” stated Archit Gupta, Clear’s founder and CEO.
It said that the fintech’s SaaS platform has seen a 5X growth in the last 18 months and added more than 3,000 large enterprise customers. It noticed a surge in usage with over 1 million small businesses on the platform, declared the company in a statement. It currently processes 10 percent of India’s business invoices with a GMV of over $400 billion.
Clear has as many as over 5 million Indian taxpayers, more than 1,00,000 tax practitioners, 600,000 small businesses and 2,000 big businesses and brands that use its platform. The company is recognised for its digital tax platform for customers.
The fintech corporation has raised $65 million in equity capital investment since its inception. Incubated in Y Combinator, Clear is backed by Silicon Valley investors, including PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Max Levchin, and Scott Banister. Composite Capital, Sequoia Capital, and SAIF Partners have also invested in the company.
Clear has established itself as the key business firm for e-filling of GST and other financial operations. On its website, the startup claims that it is the largest e-filling fintech in India. The company also provides SaaS related operations to its clients. Bangalore based clear started its operations as income tax filling platform for individuals. Later, it diversified the operations and included professionals and business firms as its clients.
When Indian government implemented GST, professionals were running here and there to find a finance firm to process it. Clear is the first Indian firm that prepared GST software including all terms and conditions. It made professionals life easy.
