Clear, a cloud software subscription service for tax filings formerly named ClearTax, has raised $75 million as a part of its Series C fundraise led by Kora Capital.
Stripe, Alua Capital, and Think Investments also participated in the round. Stripe’s investment in Clear comes just days after the US-based fintech made its first acquisition in India, acquiring Bengaluru-based reconciliation software provider, Recko.
Clear plans to use the funds to expand its offerings for business customers as it looks to introduce products for payments and invoice-based discounting. The company will also look to set its foot in international geographies, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Western Europe.
The company will double down on the product, engineering, and design functions, hiring 250 new members to the team in the coming months.
“Today, businesses are asking us for new use cases on the platform. We look to add invoice-based discounting (credit) to our software offering while allowing enterprises to automate vendor payments amongst other used cases,” said Archit Gupta, founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Clear.
Clear’s platform has grown five times in the last year and a half, adding 3,000 large enterprises as well as over a million small businesses.
Currently, Clear has two major lines of business. Through its consumer offering, ‘BLACK,’ the platform allows individuals to file income tax returns and build wealth through investment in mutual funds.
It also provides a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to corporates helping them pay GST bills, create electronic invoices and pay bills digitally.
“International expansion is another growth lever for Clear. Since Indian fintech is ahead of the international curve, it helps us efficiently serve customers in foreign geographies and gives us a tremendous head start in our international expansion,” said Archit Gupta.
Clear looks to establish a presence in Saudi Arabia over the next two months and expand its presence in the UAE and Western Europe by April 2022.
Clear says it now has over a tenth of India’s business invoicing to process. In June, it bought yBANQ as a way to get more into payments.
