Robinhood CPO, Coinbase CPO, And Balaji Srinivasan Invest In Clear

Robinhood’s chief product officer (CPO) Aparna Chennapragada, Coinbase’s CPO Surojit Chatterjee, and Balaji Srinivasan (Ex-Coinbase, Ex-Andreessen Horowitz) have invested in Indian fintech platform Clear, formerly ClearTax. 

Founded by Archit Gupta, Raja Ram Gupta, Srivatsan Chari, and Ankit Solanki in 2011, Clear is a SaaS startup that provides services like tax preparation, e-filing, accounting and investment planning solutions to individuals and businesses. 

Clear, known primarily for its online tax filing platform, had raised $75 Mn in its Series C round led by Kora Capital last year. This follow-on funding will further fuel its plans to accelerate its expansion into the BB credit and payments space and international markets.

I’m super excited to welcome Surojit Chatterjee, Aparna Chennapragada, and Balaji Srinivasan as investors in clear,” tweeted Archit Gupta, founder and CEO at clear. 

Clear’s backers include Y Combinator, Composite Capital, Elevation Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Founders Fund. It has raised over $140 Mn in equity so far, including the last funding round where it was valued at between $700 Mn and $750 Mn. 

Global fintech giant Stripe — which offers payment processing software and financial APIs and was recently valued at $95 Bn—is also an investor in Clear. 

According to Inc42 analysis, startups in the fintech sector bagged the highest number of funding deals last year along with ecommerce. Among sectors that attracted the most number of mega deals fintech (22) trailed close behind ecommerce (25), leaving enterprise tech (10) at a distant third. 

Yesterday, fintech neobanking startup Kaleidofin had raised $10 Mn in a Series B funding round led by Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, with participation from Oikocredit, Flourish Ventures, Omidyar Network, Blume Ventures and Bharat Fund also participated. 

Last year was a record-breaking year for Indian tech as startups raised more than $41.4 Bn across 1,579 deals in 2020, as per Inc42 analysis. This is a higher number than the total funding raised in the previous three years combined ($37 Bn).