ClearTax expands its operations into the Middle East and raises $75mln

Dubai, United Arab Emirates : ClearTax (now rebranded as Clear), India’s leading fintech SaaS company, today announced the company’s entry into the Middle East through a $75 million Series C fund raise for the expansion into international markets. The fundraise led by Kora Capital, alongside global fintech Stripe, Alua Capital, Think Investments and existing investors will also be used to accelerate Clear’s diversification into new business lines like B2B credit and payments.

ClearTax is Asia’s largest and most trusted tax and compliance technology solution provider. It also offers software solutions for invoices, payments, and credit for millions of businesses. In India, ClearTax counts over 3,000 large enterprises, 60,000 Chartered accountants/ tax professionals, and 1 million SMEs as its clients for GST filing (Goods and Services Tax - equivalent to VAT), e-invoicing, input tax credit claims, Vendor management etc. ClearTax is also an approved partner by Indian Tax authorities for direct API integration with the government's technical infrastructure for e-invoicing and GST. 

In the Middle East, the company will start with the launch of electronic invoicing products for medium to large enterprises and expand to VAT compliance, Accounts Payables and Receivables automation and B2B payments in the next few months. ClearTax envisions building a B2B Business Network across the globe that helps businesses with taxation, compliance, procurement, invoicing, payments, and collections. 

The company has already launched its solution to generate electronic invoices as per Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) guidelines in Saudi Arabia. The tech platform is available in English and Arabic with cloud servers hosted inside the Kingdom.

Speaking on the development, Archit Gupta, Founder and CEO – ClearTax said, “Government authorities across the Middle East are undertaking massive digital reforms to transform the economy in the next decade. This wave of digitization is resulting in rapid investments in this region from global tech giants. We think that ClearTax is also well-positioned to enter the Middle East market considering the increasing push on digital payments, digitization of business processes, government mandates on digitization of tax and compliance, and overall increasing adoption of cloud-based technology solutions. We feel excited about a chance to play a role in this massive transformation and want to support the local authorities. ClearTax has a solid product roadmap for the Middle East and will launch a series of SaaS product suites in the next few quarters.”

He added, “We welcome Kora, Stripe and our other incoming investors. Kora has strong experience in technology players in emerging markets and Stripe is a global technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet - we are excited to learn from both of them. This funding also gives us fuel for our international expansion.”

Nitin Saigal, Kora’s Founder and CIO said: “We are excited to partner with ClearTax as they innovate at scale in the SaaS ecosystem, enabling Enterprises and SMEs to automate their workflows around taxation, invoicing and several other adjacencies. We look forward to ClearTax’s journey in the Indian and global markets.”

ClearTax’s SaaS platform has witnessed a phenomenal 5x growth in the last 18 months adding 3,000+ large enterprise customers. The ClearTax platform now processes over 10% of India’s business invoices with a GMV of $400 billion ClearTax is developing solutions that can be easily integrated with any ERP/ POS system, provides AI-powered smart validations and reconciliations to ensure maximum efficiency and accuracy in E-invoicing and subsequent VAT filing. ClearTax is looking to enter the UAE by mid-2022 with E-invoicing and VAT offerings within the country.

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About ClearTax

ClearTax (now rebranded as Clear) is India’s leading Fintech SaaS company with the mission of simplifying finance. We are trusted by over 6 million Indians, more than 60,000 tax professionals, 1 million small businesses and 3,000 large Enterprises. For small and large businesses, our product suite covers invoicing, GST, range of managed services and credit. For tax professionals, we offer comprehensive GST, Income Tax and TDS solutions. For individuals, we offer tax and wealth management solutions. With this Series C round, we have raised $140 million in equity capital since inception. Our investors include Kora capital, Stripe, Alua Capital, Think Investments, Y Combinator, Composite Capital, Elevation Capital, Founders Fund and Sequoia Capital.

© Press Release 2021