Clear (formerly ClearTax), a fintech SaaS company, has acquired supply chain financing provider Xpedize. Although sources estimate the sum to be about Rs 100 crore, the deal’s financial details were not released.
The acquisition is Clear’s second after it acquired B2B payments platform Ybanq earlier this year to assist its aims to penetrate the SME credit and B2B payments space.
By the end of FY22, the Xpedize platform, which will now be known as Clear Invoice Discounting, is estimated to have processed around Rs 1,000 crore in GMV annually. The intelligent AI/ML platform links to ERPs and allows suppliers to choose a discount rate acceptable to both the suppliers and their SME clients.
“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,” Archit Gupta, founder and CEO, Clear, said. “This acquisition is important for us as we strive to make supply chain financing programmes with large enterprises successful,” he added.
Clear’s existing 3,000-plus enterprise customers will be able to use the invoice discounting solution. In addition, some banks and TReDS platforms are already connected to the platform. Clear Invoice Discounting will integrate with many more banks and NBFCs in the following quarters to assure a steady supply of credit to a larger number of suppliers.
Regan Mithani and Deepak Gugnani, both ex-Citibank bankers, founded Xpedize, which HDFC Capital and YourNest Venture Capital backed. Xpedize’s 25+ member team will continue to operate the invoice discounting programme while also exploring additional Clear options.
