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March-end—when tax season turns into a frantic scramble. Last-minute savings, confusing rules, and a desperate hunt for misplaced receipts. No matter how digital the world became, tax filing remained a puzzle—complex forms, endless calculations, and the fear of getting it wrong.
Until one IIT Guwahati graduate turned this frustration into an opportunity, transforming how millions of Indians file taxes. The result? A company that generated ₹209 crore in revenue in 2023-24.
Here’s how one idea made tax filing effortless.
That Changed Everything
Dial back to the afternoon of 2010 in Delhi and a chat between Archit Gupta, who was visiting from San Francisco, and his Chartered Accountant father, Raja Ram Gupta.
Archit’s dad talked about the government’s new online tax filing system, which is the same old hassle but in a digital form.
The conversation was casual, but not the problem.
It stuck with Archit and sparked something deeper—and by 2011, it had brought him back to India with one clear thought: Let’s make it easy for people. And that’s how the seeds of ClearTax were sown.
Data Engineering to Taxation
Imagine an IIT Guwahati Graduate quitting a job at Data Domain Corporation and PhD at the University of Wisconsin to start a venture in India – armed with nothing but an idea.
Now add a $250,000 cheque from his boss as an angel investor. Sounds like a well-planned, pitch-perfect startup story.
Not quite. Archit had no product, no detailed business plan—just a clear goal: to build the simplest possible solution to a problem millions of Indians faced.
From the Idea To The Product
Archit started from scratch in a new business ecosystem, learning from the CAs and deepening his knowledge and understanding of the Indian tax system.
He started looking at ‘e-filings’ as a software problem and developed the platform. The mission was simple: eliminate the complexities and simplify tax filing with a few clicks.
A Product Of The People, For The People
India’s startup scene was all about transactions and e-commerce. But Archit set out to build a product-first company.
But the big question? Can a pure product company survive here?
The team started by building software for consumers and CAs, planning to roll it out via CAs first. But it felt incomplete.
So, they decided to put consumers at the heart of it all. Focus on their needs. Make e-filing simple.
In July 2011, Archit, his father, and Ankit Solanki – a friend he met at a hackathon – launched ClearTax with that mission.
Startup to First 1,000 Users
Fun fact: the completely bootstrapped company was launched just 11 days before the tax filing deadline for the year!
With no marketing budget, Archit relied on word-of-mouth, emailing friends and acquaintances to test the platform.
Within two hours of going live, ClearTax registered its first user. By the end of 11 days, 1,000 people had filed their taxes on the platform.
Three dedicated people working in a garage got ClearTax its first tick of approval!
An Easy-Breezy Tax Filing Tool
ClearTax was built for the people, and Archit kept consumers at the centre of each aspect, working day and night to add one support feature after another.
Once, someone told him how difficult it was to understand and read the form.
ClearTax added a feature where you could upload the form online, and the platform would extract the necessary details automatically.
What once took hours was now done in just 15 minutes.
Of Scale And Achieving It
With easy-to-use features on the platform, the number of users also increased.
The company had started to scale and it was time to work on more financial backing. But raising funds was tough for a tax-filing startup.
Meanwhile, US giants were entering the Indian market with aggressive marketing.
That’s when Archit came across Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley accelerator.
But there was a catch: the investor did not have a pattern of investing in emerging-economy companies.
Financial Stamp Of Approval!
Archit saw the opportunity when YC invested in a Brazilian company.
He took a chance, applied, appeared for the interview, and got selected as the fifth YC-backed Indian start-up in 2014.
ClearTax also became the first YC-backed Indian company focusing only on the Indian market.
The Funding Flood Gates
ClearTax received a seed fund of $1,20,000 from YC, followed by financial backing from One97 Communications in October 2015.
It also raised $2 million in the Pre-Series A round of investment from FF Angel and Sequoia Capital, besides seed funding of $1.3 million from PayPal co-founder Scott Banister.
Later, big names like Naval Ravikant, WhatsApp business head Neeraj Arora, Dropbox VP Operations Ruchi Sanghvi, and Flexport’s CEO Ryan Petersen joined the list of investors.
From bootstrapping to raising $75 million in 2021 from Stripe, Cleartax started deepening its mark in the Indian business ecosystem.
To a Financial Ecosystem
With solid financial backing, ClearTax expanded beyond tax filing. It introduced GST solutions in the B2B space, compliance services, and investment tools, gradually evolving into a full-fledged financial ecosystem.
Today, the platform connects over 2,000 brands, 700,000 businesses, and 60,000 tax professionals, simplifying finance for millions of Indians.
Its innovation and impact earned it numerous accolades, including TC Top Companies (Y Combinator) in 2021,
Most Innovative Fintech Data Solution Provider Award in 2022, and one of India’s Most Trusted Brands in 2023.
Product At Its Best
Today, ClearTax is synonymous with efficiency, reducing tax filing time to just seven minutes on average and helping save ₹1000 crore as tax savings.
It processes up to 10% of India’s business invoices and contributes significantly to India’s e-invoice generation.
In fact, in FY2024, the company’s operation scaled 93%, clocking a revenue of ₹209.84 crore. Their approach? Keep listening to and understanding your consumers.
A Financially Empowered India
Archit Gupta envisions ClearTax, now recognized as ‘Clear’, as more than just a tax-filing platform; he sees it as a financial partner for every Indian.
The company continues pushing boundaries, exploring AI-driven financial tools, and expanding its portfolio to make financial literacy and tax compliance easier for individuals and businesses alike.
From a summer conversation in Delhi to revolutionizing India’s financial landscape, ClearTax’s journey proves that the best businesses don’t just solve problems—they change lives, one tax return at a time!
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I’m Archana R. Chettiar, an experienced content creator with
an affinity for writing on personal finance and other financial content. I
love to write on equity investing, retirement, managing money, and more.
