Software as a Service (SaaS)-led fintech startup Clear, earlier known as ClearTax, has acquired supply chain financing technology firm Xpedize for an undisclosed mount.

This is Clear’s second acquisition after taking over the B2B payments platform Ybanq in July 2021. With this acquisition, the firm has marked its foray into the SME credit and B2B payments segment.

It will also help Clear scale faster in the invoice discounting space, by offering technology-led supply chain financing to its network of enterprise customers.

Post the deal, Xpedize, which will be rebranded as Clear Invoice Discounting, will provide capital and liquidity to suppliers.

Founded in 2017, its team of over 25 members will continue to run the invoice discounting platform, a statement said. The startup is expected to process Rs 1,000 crore gross merchandising value (GMV) annualised by the end of FY22.

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 billion throughout by FY24.

The platform has partnered with banks and other financial institutions, including Receivables Exchange of India (RXIL) and Citi. Over the next few quarters, Clear Invoice Discounting will integrate with more banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to ensure a robust supply of credit to a wider supplier base, the company stated.

With this new vertical, Clear will compete with the likes of Lendingkart, KredX, Rupeek, among others that offer credit to SMEs.

As per an International Finance Corporation (IFC) report, SMEs take up a miniscule 6-7 percent credit share and face a credit gap of close to $1.1 trillion.

Emerging fintech startups are largely enabling credit on three fronts — digital/phygital distribution engine, creating alternate data sets for underwriting and lending/co-lending along with traditional lenders to MSMEs.

Speaking on the acquisition, Archit Gupta, Founder and CEO, Clear, said “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.”

The acquisition comes after Clear raised $75 million in a Series C round led by Kora Capital in October last year. Global fintech Stripe, Alua Capital, Think Investments and existing investors also participated in the round.

(Edited by : Shloka Badkar)