Clear acquires supply chain financing tech firm Xpedize
Mumbai, March 2022: Clear (ClearTax), India’s largest fintech SaaS company, today announced that it has acquired supply chain financing technology firm Xpedize. This is Clear’s second acquisition after taking over Ybanq – another B2B payments platform. With this acquisition, Clear will leap ahead in its plans to enter SME credit and B2B payments.
The Xpedize platform, which will now be rebranded as Clear Invoice Discounting, delivers access to instant working capital and liquidity to suppliers. It is expected to process 1,000 Cr GMV annualized by the end of FY22. The smart AI/ML-based platform connects to ERPs and enables the suppliers to select a discount rate that is mutually acceptable to the suppliers and their SME customers. Enterprises will not only earn an additional yield on their treasury cash, but can also digitally-manage supplier payments with seamless ERP integration and pay early using a range of financing options – treasury cash, bank credit line, or TReDS marketplaces.
“Indian businesses need access to faster payments and efficient financing. While consumer payments have become real-time thanks to UPI, we believe much can be done for the suppliers to larger companies. This acquisition speeds up our journey towards enabling these two lifelines for Indian businesses. Xpedize platform is already running with multiple large enterprises and allows them to pay their suppliers faster. We believe that a separate vertical within Clear will encompass all our technology-enabled financial services and help us quickly scale to serve millions of suppliers,” said Archit Gupta, Founder and CEO, Clear, about the acquisition.
“This acquisition is important for us as we strive to make supply chain financing programs with large enterprises successful. A large chunk of businesses in India use our GST compliance suite, and these customers will reap the benefits of the network effect. Higher supplier participation, zero overheads for enterprises, and better discount rate discovery are our three focus areas to disrupt this space,” Gupta added.
The invoice discounting solution will be available to Clear’s existing 3,000-plus enterprise customers. By providing working capital solutions to the vendors of their enterprise customers, Clear is targeting to achieve $3 Bn throughput by FY24. The platform is already integrated with some banks and TReDS platforms. Over the next few quarters, Clear Invoice Discounting will integrate with many more banks and NBFCs to ensure a robust supply of credit to a wider supplier base.
Xpedize is led by ex-Citibank corporate bankers Regan Mithani and Deepak Gugnani and was funded by marquee investors including HDFC Capital and YourNest Venture Capital. The 25+ member team of Xpedize will continue to run the invoice discounting product and expand into other opportunities within Clear.
“With Clear’s acquisition we will continue to focus on customer success and our approach will be fully customer backward. We are enthused by Clear’s culture and we are excited to make best-in-class products from India for enterprises around the world,” said Deepak Gugnani and Regan Mithani, founders, Xpedize.
In October 2021, Clear raised $75 million in Series C funding led by Kora Capital, Stripe, Alua Capital, Think Investments, and existing investors to accelerate Clear’s expansion into B2B credit and payments, plus expansion into international markets. Clear had previously acquired Ybanq, a Y Combinator-backed enterprise payments startup, in 2021.
