ClearTax raises $1.3 mn angel funding from Silicon Valley angels

PayPal co-founder Max Levchin marks his first India-focussed investment with this round

ClearTax, an Income Tax Returns e-filing website, has announced securing an angel investment of $1.3 million from Silicon Valley angels. The investors include PayPal co-founder Max Levchin who makes his first India-focussed investment with ClearTax's latest funding round

The investment will be used by ClearTax to further its mission of simplifying the process of tax filing through technology, said the company in a press release.

The funding round was participated in by investors including Scott & Cyan Banister, serial investors in ventures such as Uber, SpaceX, Postmates and Zappos and winners of the Crunchies Angel Investors of the Year 2016 award.

Others who participated in the round included WhatsApp's Business Head Neeraj Arora, AngelList Founder & CEO Naval Ravikant, Dropbox VP Ruchi Sanghvi, Y Combinator alum Sumon Sadhu and Flexport's Founder & CEO Ryan Petersen.

ClearTax is an Indian Income Tax Return e-filing website that helps Individuals file their Tax returns online via their website - all a user has to do is upload their Form-16 PDF and the ClearTax software prepares the tax return instantly and automatically.

ClearTax processed tax return e-filings for 300,000 individuals in assessment year 2014-15.An estimated 1 million users filed their returns using the site for the assessment year 2015-16, claims the company.

It was founded in 2011 by Archit Gupta along with his father Raja Ram Gupta, a Chartered Accountant; Srivatsan Chari; and Ankit Solanki. Archit is an IIT Guwahati alumnus who went on to pursue a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.