Indian fintech firm Clear announced today that it has secured US$ 75M in Series C funding to continue developing its digital financial solutions. The Singapore-based venture capital firm Vertex Ventures led the investment, with participation from existing investors DST Global, Coatue, and Lightspeed.
This brings Clear’s total funding to date to US$ 147 million. This funding will help Clear to further accelerate its growth in India and expand its suite of digital financial services.
Overview of Clear
Clear is a technology company that has pioneered the development of self-sovereign identity solutions. By combining biometric authentication with privacy-by-design principles, Clear creates self-sovereign identities to allow individuals to communicate and interact securely with organisations, access services more safely, and better control their data.
The successful completion of Clear’s Series C equity funding marks a key milestone in our mission to provide people with secure access and control of their data while allowing businesses to focus on providing better services and experiences. With this additional capital infusion, we will continue our efforts towards fully realising our vision for the distributed identity revolution.
The investment round was oversubscribed, raising US$ 75 million led by Tiger Global Management, with continued participation from prior backers including Future Ventures, DCVC (Data Collective), Samsung Next among other investors. Alongside the equity funding round Tiger Global Management has also committed US$ 15M in debt financing facilities. We believe this partnership will help accelerate Clear’s ambition in delivering secure digital rights for all individuals worldwide.
With this latest round of financing we are one step closer to fulfilling our mission – empowering people with the ability to securely manage and share accurate identity information seamlessly across contexts, enabling organisations around the world to conduct secure transactions electronically at large scale without compromising user experience or compromise on privacy or security standards.
Overview of Series C funding
Series C funding is a form of venture capital financing that typically follows after the seed round, Series A and Series B investments. It is the third stage in a company’s growth, representing an intermediate stage between the start-up phase and the eventual initial public offering (IPO). The purpose of Series C financing is for a company to grow to the size it can attract larger investors or bring its product or service to market.
This type of funding usually occurs when a venture capital firm has invested in the company several times over time and has seen its value increase but is not yet ready for an IPO. This can occur because the company may need further resources to scale up operations, reach milestones, or develop products or services. Companies at this stage are expected to have strong management teams and some traction in customer acquisition, revenues or press visibility.
For a successful completed round, Round C will commonly involve established players such as corporate strategic investors, private equity firms specialising in small–cap buyouts, large venture capital firms, and other accredited investors. These players will typically inject money into companies while expecting returns on their money several years down the line either through IPOs or strategic acquisitions by bigger companies.
Background
Indian fintech firm Clear has raised US$ 75 M in a Series C funding round, led by Google with active participation from Falcon Edge, Ribbit Capital and Sequoia India. This funding brings the total investments raised by Clear to US$125 million.
Founded in January 2019 by Arjun Jain, Karan Bajwa, and Siddharth Verma, Clear is on a mission to revolutionise the digital payments landscape in India.
Clear’s journey since its inception
Clear was founded in 2016 to make identity secure and convenient for everyone. Since its inception, the company has quickly become one of the leading providers of biometric identity solutions, offering its products to secure various applications ranging from physical access control to digital authentication.
Building on its early successes, Clear raised $30 million in a Series A funding round and another $15 million in a Series B round – both led by major venture capital firms. This enabled the company to take their offerings global, focusing on expanding into regulated markets across Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific. In addition, clear used this opportunity to further enhance its products with new features such as facial recognition in everyday applications.
As Clear’s growth continued, 2019 saw the launch of several new initiatives such as Clear Access – a platform enabling companies to onboard customers faster with automated identity verification capabilities – and Hint – an app that allows users to prove their identity with only biometrics. Consequently, these achievements triggered momentum heading into 2020 resulting in yet another funding round – a staggering $75 million Series C led by Amazon Alexa Fund and including other investors such as Accel Ventures, Microsoft Ventures and Salesforce Ventures.
This investment will enable Clear to use their expertise to offer even more services going forward into 2021 and beyond. It will also allow them to drive expansion across additional markets and bolster their executive leadership team adding more members from some of the world’s leading technology companies.
Previous rounds of funding
Raised in December 2020, Clear’s Series C funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and joined by previous investors Spark Capital, General Catalyst and Krillion Ventures, along with new investors Sapphire Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, F-Prime Capital Partners, e.ventures and Nubank.
Clear has raised an estimated US$122M throughout its three funding rounds since its Series A in August 2018. The company’s Series A funding round was led by Spark Capital with participation from Krillion Ventures and Valor Ventures;. In contrast, its Series B round was led by General Catalyst with participation from Krillion Ventures.
Indian fintech firm Clear secures US$ 75M in Series C funding
Indian fintech firm Clear has recently announced that it has secured US$ 75M in Series C funding. This is great news for Clear, as it accelerates their plans to expand their user base and product offerings.
The Series C funding round was joined by existing investor Lightstone GTMynd, and new investors such as US-based Coatue and Falcon Edge Capital.
Let’s dive deeper into the details of the Series C funding round.
Investors involved
Clear, a biometric security company that offers fingerprint ID technology to secure enterprise workforces, announced today that it has closed US$ 75M in Series C funding. A strategic investment led the round from Deutsche Telekom and Next47, the venture arm of Siemens. Also participating in the round were Guardian Strategic Ventures and Lightspeed Ventures Partners, with additional participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and Ridge Ventures.
The new funding will accelerate international expansion for Clear as it continues to provide technologies including its proprietary biometric identification platform to employers around the globe. As a result, the company is on track to achieve 500% year-over-year revenue growth for 2019. In addition, it has seen significant adoption of its product in the US with more than 1 million users across its enterprise customer base.
Clear plans to use this new funding to further develop its offering and provide additional resources to refine the platform’s ease-of-use, scalability and security capabilities. This move comes when businesses increasingly seek ways to streamline workforce entry processes while ensuring employee safety with stringent security measures like biometrics authentication.
Amount raised
Clear, a global identity platform provider, has closed its US$75 million Series C funding round. The round was led by Ancestry founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital and Global Brain in Japan, with participation from Westcap, FJ Labs and other long-term investors including 8VC’s Expansion Capital Fund.
This brings the total amount of capital Clear has raised to over US$130 million and is set to help the business drive global expansion. The funds from the round will be used to expand its research & development efforts to ensure the development of technologies that put user privacy and safety first. Clear also plans to invest in product innovation for both businesses and consumers, breaking through traditional approaches in identity assurance.
Use of funds
Clear, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that makes it easier for businesses to monetise digital media and subscription models, has raised US$ 75 million in its Series C funding round, bringing its total raised funds to nearly US$ 150 million.
The round was co-led by venture capital firms Spark Capital and Sapphire Ventures, with participation from existing investors Greycroft Partners, Lerer Hippeau and ScaleUp. The new funds will further accelerate Clear’s product development and global expansion efforts and fuel go-to-market activities.
Clear is the leading monetisation platform for media companies and subscription businesses. Powered by machine learning algorithms that offer dynamic pricing personalisation, inventory management capabilities and the industry’s most robust analytics suite, businesses benefit from increased conversions, increased revenue visibility and improved money management. Clear CEO Dan Cobley said, “We are excited about the future of this business venture with our new partners on board.”
With these funds secured in the Series C investment round, Clear seeks to heighten its global presence with expanded support functions covering customer success operations and strategic partnerships. Alongside growing its technology products such as Dynamic Prices & Promotions suite Test & Learn Framework and Subscription Analytics capabilities – the company will focus on expanding its workforce into new territories in 2021.
Impact of the funding
Indian fintech firm Clear recently announced that it has raised US$ 75M in Series C funding, bringing its total funding to US$ 160M.
This latest funding round will significantly impact Clear’s operations and growth plans.
This article will discuss the potential effects of the funding and how it will help Clear expand its presence in the Indian market.
Expansion of Clear’s reach
The Series C funding round for Clear, a biometric identity and credential management provider, has provided the company with the means to expand their reach and develop solutions that will positively impact customers and the industries they serve. The funds are expected to fuel Clear’s continued growth by investing in new products; expanding its presence globally; and further advancing its technology.
Clear plans to use this funding to push forward its mission of making global secure identity solutions available. The company is looking towards 2020, hoping to continue disrupting the identity market, introducing new features and products, expanding geographically, and further pushing into uncharted territory. These investments will support the development of end-to-end identity solutions for governments, enterprises, airports – especially making travel easier for millions – and other customers across many industries.
In anticipation of increased production scalability, these investments will also facilitate staff expansion in areas such as engineering, customer success, and business function teams. This expansion into different markets like aviation will give a massive financial boost for Clear along with providing more secure access control applications during air travel which would create efficiency gains for operators by reducing operational costs. All these changes will lead toward creating trusted digital identities which can be used across every existing platform from physical cards, devices or even smartphone applications that are easily managed online.
Expansion of product offerings
Following the successful acquisition of $75M in Series C funding, the company has exciting plans to expand their product offerings and raise their market share on a global level. The additional capital will be used to conduct strategic enhancements for highlighted products, launch new offerings into the industry, and actively undertake organic and inorganic growth opportunities.
The company seeks to strengthen its existing foothold in target countries and regions by increasing product development efforts for existing and newly launched items. Incoming resources will be invested into research & development activities for improving existing structures and engineering innovative solutions. Plans are also in motion to strengthen product-focused stages such as marketing, sales & distribution, inventory management, etc., by leveraging new technology possessed by the firm.
There is also room being created to allow exploration within untapped markets across the world to garner more recognition before broadening visibility of current products within other geographic areas.
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