Srivatsan Chari & Clear: Building an $800M Fintech by Solving Unglamorous Problems
An in-depth profile of Srivatsan Chari and Clear. Discover their journey from a simple tax tool to a global fintech processing $300B in invoices.
Every year, over $300 billion in B2B invoice value flows through a single, sophisticated software platform built in India. This platform is Clear, and its story is a masterclass in strategic pivots, founder resilience, and the immense value found in solving the complex, “unglamorous” problems that others avoid. At the heart of this journey is its co-founder, Srivatsan Chari, a product-focused leader who helped steer the company from a bootstrapped tax tool into a global fintech giant.
This article is a deep dive into the founder thesis of Srivatsan Chari and the evolution of Clear, incorporating exclusive insights from his recent conversation on the Founder Thesis podcast.
Check out the video of the conversation here or read on for insights.
The Founder's Journey 🚀
Srivatsan Chari’s path to building one of India's most successful fintech companies was not a straight line. A Computer Science graduate from the prestigious BITS, Pilani, his entrepreneurial journey began with two earlier startups: a UX consulting firm called 'nth loop' and a social media venture named 'ShouScene'. While these ventures didn't achieve the scale of Clear, they provided a crucial, hard-won lesson that would become the bedrock of his founder philosophy.
He learned that for a startup to succeed, founders cannot remain siloed in their technical or design expertise. They must embrace the entire business spectrum.
"In a company, the only two things that you do is build the product and sell the product... and you have to do all of that yourself."
This “full-stack founder” mentality proved invaluable, especially during the difficult early years. Srivatsan speaks candidly about the psychological fortitude required to keep going, even when faced with immense self-doubt. His philosophy is one of relentless forward momentum.
"Guilt doesn't help you at all... you have to just focus on the next thing... and you just have to power through all of that."
This intense resilience is balanced by a remarkably creative approach to leadership. CEO Archit Gupta has shared anecdotes of their Sunday strategy meetings held in a public park, where Srivatsan would discuss growth strategy while playing with stray dogs—a testament to a leader who understands that breakthrough ideas often flourish outside the confines of a traditional boardroom.
The Genesis of Clear 💡
Founded in 2011, Clear started life as ClearTax with a mission to simplify the painfully complex process of filing income tax in India. The spark came from a conversation between Archit and his father, a Chartered Accountant, who highlighted the challenges of dealing with archaic systems. Srivatsan recalls the state of financial software at the time:
"They're stuck in they were made in the eighties, and they're still stuck there."
For three years, the founders bootstrapped the company, a period Srivatsan describes as "crazy," navigating the extreme seasonality of the tax business where for months on end, "there's almost no one using you." They survived on sheer grit and a powerful, organic growth engine fueled by writing helpful guides and blogs, building a cult-like following without a marketing budget.
The major turning point came in 2014. After struggling to find investors in India who understood their vision, ClearTax was accepted into Y Combinator, becoming the first India-focused startup to be funded by the prestigious Silicon Valley accelerator. This provided not only $120,000 in seed capital but, more importantly, validation and access to an elite global network, transforming them from "three kids in a kothi" into a serious company on the global stage.
The Great B2B Pivot ➡️
By 2016, ClearTax was a beloved consumer brand with over a million users. However, the founders recognized that the B2C tax-filing market, while large, was seasonal and difficult to monetize at scale. This led to the single most important strategic decision in the company's history.
With the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India in 2017, they saw a massive, urgent, and complex problem for businesses. They made a "bet the company" move, pivoting the company's focus to build an enterprise-grade GST compliance platform. The gamble was immense. As Archit later admitted:
"If the best had not worked out, we would have died."
They ramped up their GST-focused team from 60 to over 300 people in just eight months, pouring the majority of their capital into this new B2B division. The pivot was a resounding success. By 2020, an astonishing 85-90% of Clear's revenue was generated from its B2B enterprise clients.
Building India's Financial Operating System ⚙️
The GST pivot was just the beginning. The company's vision had expanded far beyond taxes, driven by a foundational belief in the power of technology.
"We genuinely believe in the power of software and technology to, like, simplify people's financial lives."
To signal this shift, in June 2021, the company officially rebranded from ClearTax to Clear. This wasn't just a name change; it was a public declaration of its new identity as a full-stack financial services platform.
Today, Clear is building a "Financial Operating System" for businesses—a unified platform designed to create a connected ecosystem for accounts payable, vendor management, tax compliance, and invoice financing. This expansion was accelerated by a series of strategic acquisitions:
yBANQ (July 2021): To enter the B2B payments and automated bookkeeping space.
Xpedize (March 2022): To bolster capabilities in supply chain financing and invoice discounting.
CimplyFive (July 2022): To add automated corporate law and SEBI compliance to its enterprise suite.
The platform's core is its Al-powered technology, engineered to handle massive scale with 99.99% uptime and deep, two-way integrations with major ERPs like SAP and NetSuite.
Clear by the Numbers 📊
Clear's strategic execution is reflected in its powerful growth metrics, making it a dominant player in the enterprise fintech space.
Total Funding: $140.3 million raised from elite global investors including Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Stripe, and Kora Capital.
Valuation: Approximately $800 million as of its last funding round in 2022.
Annual Invoice Volume: Processes over $300 billion in B2B invoice value on its platform annually.
Revenue Growth: Revenue from operations grew an impressive 93% year-over-year to ₹210 crore (approx. $25 million) in FY24.
Path to Profitability: Simultaneously demonstrated strong fiscal discipline, cutting its losses by 59% to ₹96 crore in the same period, with a stated goal to turn profitable in the current fiscal year.
Platform Scale: Has served over 6 million ITR filers and supports more than 600,000 SMEs.
The Road Ahead: Global Ambition & Profitability 🌏
Having built a robust platform for the Indian market, Clear is now actively pursuing international expansion. Its strategy is to target regions with similarly complex compliance needs, leveraging its expertise in e-invoicing. This reflects a larger ambition for the company's mission.
"…go from simplifying finances for India to simplifying finances for the world. That's also one direction in which we're heading into."
Middle East: The company has established a significant presence in Saudi Arabia, partnering with over 250 large enterprises and collaborating directly with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA).
Southeast Asia: Clear is initiating e-invoicing efforts in Malaysia, marking another key milestone in its global strategy.
The journey of Srivatsan Chari and Clear is a powerful narrative of identifying a deep, unglamorous problem and solving it with technology, design simplicity, and relentless execution. From a tool that simplified tax filing for individuals, it has evolved into a critical financial infrastructure for businesses in India and, soon, the world.
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