Fintech company Clear, formerly known as ClearTax, announced on Monday that it raised $75 million in a Series C funding round led by Kora Capital, Stripe, Alua Capital, Think Investment and existing investors. The funds, it said, will be used to accelerate the company s expansion into B 2 B credit and payments segments as well as to expand into the international market.
With the funding, Clear aims to take its product suite to the international market, which is also witnessing similar shifts in payments and credit. It aims to serve more than 10,000 small businesses and 10 million large 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 fuel for our international expansion, said Archit Gupta, Clear s founder and CEO.
The Fintech SaaS platform has witnessed a 5 X growth in the last 18 months and added more than 3,000 large enterprise customers, it said. It saw a surge in usage with over 1 million small businesses on the platform, stated the company in a statement. It currently processes 10 per cent of India s business invoices with a GMV of over $400 billion.
Clear has as many as 5 million Indian taxpayers, more than 1,00, 000 tax practitioners, 600,000 small businesses and 2,000 large businesses and brands that use its platform. The company is known for its digital tax platform for customers.
The fintech company has raised $65 million in equity capital since its inception. Incubated in Y Combinator, Clear is funded by Silicon Valley investors, including PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Max Levchin and Scott Banister. SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital and Composite Capital have also invested in the company.
Also read: Global fintech giant Stripe acquires Recko-based Recko in India, marking its first acquisition in Bengaluru.