Product
Clear has accelerated and strengthened its CFO offerings by making its second acquisition in 2022, it acquired Xpedize in March.
Clear (formerly ClearTax), India’s leading fintech SaaS company, today announced that it has acquired CimplyFive, a cloud hosted application that automates Company Law and SEBI Listing Obligations (LODR) compliance in an all cash deal. This is Clear’s second company acquisition in 2022, after it acquired Xpedize, an invoice discounting platform in March. Clear has made 4 acquisitions so far, which include YBANQ in 2021 and Karvy's GST business in 2020.
Timely and accurate compliance is a key purview of the CFO's office. An essential component of compliance for a company is adhering fully with the Companies Act. Clear saw that CFOs and Board of Directors have started to be more proactive on strong governance and controls with respect to Companies Act and want to be highly organized and transparent with their record keeping and reporting. As the trusted compliance partner to the CFO’s office, Clear was often asked for adjoining compliance solutions. Non-compliance with Companies Act attracts several penalties, the Ministry for Corporate Affairs (MCA) has put in place stringent measures against those that are non-compliant; some contraventions may even lead to imprisonment. CimplyFive will further Clear’s CFO compliance suite to other areas, beyond Direct and Indirect Tax.
Constant change in corporate laws, over 100 changes each year in the Companies Act, 2013 and SEBI Regulations, requires enterprises to be agile. There are over 150 tasks for listing companies that necessitate system-based tracking. So far there has been no mechanism to run the secretarial office using technology in a paperless manner with due access controls. Managing these compliances with the help of cloud based tech reduces dependencies and removes access barriers, and also helps companies carry out board meetings in a completely transparent and paperless way. Enterprises must strive to create institutional memory that stands the test of time and sustains 100s of years of company documentation and impeccable corporate history, which is capable of being accessed instantly.
With this acquisition, Clear’s enterprise customers will have access to comprehensive Compliance Risk Management Software that eliminates many procedural non-compliance under the Companies Act, 2013.
“This acquisition will not just make our compliance suite larger but also stronger. We are committed to serving the CFO's office comprehensively”, said Archit Gupta, Founder and CEO, Clear, at the acquisition announcement.
Founded in 2014 by Shankar Jaganathan and invested in by prominent ex-CFOs like Mohandas Pai, Suresh Senapaty, CimplyFive has scores of enterprise customers which include Fabindia, Premji Invest, Crompton, Tata-Hitachi, TVS Group, Jubilant Group and Wipro, among others. The founder and the team of CimplyFive will function as an independent platform for now, as a part of Clear. Founder Shankar J will continue to lead this business. Once integrated, Clear’s expanded product suite will offer a much more best-in-class offering for its 5000+ enterprise customers which includes both Indian corporations as well as global enterprises with subsidiaries in India
Enterprises that have global subsidiaries can set up this product for their compliance. This product can also be used by listed companies to do SEBI’s LODR reporting.
About Clear
Clear is India’s leading Fintech SaaS company with the mission of simplifying finances for Indian businesses and individuals. We are trusted by over 5 million Indian Taxpayers, more than 1,00,000 tax practitioners, 600,000 small businesses and 2,000 large businesses and brands. For small and large businesses, our product suite covers invoicing, GST, range of managed services and credit. For tax professionals, we offer comprehensive GST compliance, ITR and TDS filing solutions. For individuals, we offer tax compliance and wealth management. Clear has raised $65 Million in equity capital investment since its inception. The company was incubated in Y Combinator and is funded by Silicon Valley investors, including PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Max Levchin, and Scott Banister. Clear’s investors include Composite Capital, Sequoia Capital, and SAIF Partners. Please visit – Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube for latest updates on Clear
