Fintech startup Clear aims to propel SaaS business after $75M Series C fundraise

Fintech startup Clear (formerly ClearTax) raised a $75 million Series C financing round led by Kora Capital and Stripe. Moreover, Alua Capital and Think Investments also actively participated in the funding round. 

Clear’s fund infusion comes just a few days after Stripe acquired Recko — a Bengaluru-based reconciliation software company — which is incidentally the first acquisition made by Stripe in India. 

With this, Clear plans to expand the potential of its enterprise SaaS business, which it provides to listed companies with big turnovers for their invoice management, GST bills, etc. 

In an exclusive interview with YourStory’s Daily Dispatch, Archit Gupta, Founder and CEO, Clear, says,

“The plan for this funding is to expand our SaaS business into adding payments and credit on the fintech side. And, the other part is going international with our Software-as-a-Service business to multiple countries.” 

The Bengaluru-based company also provides its SaaS services for invoicing to small businesses under ClearOne and for accountants as ClearPro. 

COVID-19 was an especially challenging time for most businesses. There was a higher demand for working capital due to the pandemic, according to Archit. 

“During the pandemic, we built our business in the enterprise SaaS side, which was on the electronic invoicing, e-bills, and GST. We doubled down on those businesses and grew 5X,” explains Archit. 

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Going forward, the startup wants to double down on growth for all its offerings. 

Clear is targeting to serve over 10,000 enterprises with its SaaS platform. It also aims to serve 10 million customers while evolving at a 10X growth rate for its small businesses segment. 

Earlier this year, in June, Clear had announced the acquisition of yBANQ — an enterprise payments startup backed by Y Combinator. According to Archit, this acquisition is incidental since it is backed by Y Combinator and will bring expertise to build the fintech startup’s payments platform. 

At present, the fintech startup plans to include more financial services on its platform, with a focus on invoicing as it will be a huge opportunity to serve the small businesses in India.  

The funding will also be directed towards more acquisitions next year that fit well with the startup’s criteria to improve payments and international expansion.