Clear Lays Off at Least 16% of Staff, Newly Hired IITians Among Those Impacted

Bengaluru-based taxation and financial services provider Clear (formerly known as ClearTax) has laid off hundreds of its employees this month in a fresh round of job cuts. The company has confirmed the cuts, calling it a "broader strategic organisational restructuring" and confirmed that it impacted "early-career employees."

However, the number of impacted staff differs from what affected employees have said.

The job cuts first came to light after several of the impacted workers started posting about it on LinkedIn. Outlook Business has seen at least three such posts.

In one such post, IIT Guwahati's 2025 batch student Dhruv Mangroliya wrote, "Due to a recent restructuring at Clear (ClearTax), approx. 25% of the workforce — primarily from the software team — were laid off."

He was also part of the team. Mangroliya said that he joined Clear in June 2025, right after receiving his offer on Day 1 of placements at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. "I was excited to learn and contribute from day one. While this news was unexpected, I’m treating it as a brief pause — not the end of my journey. I'm choosing to see this as a chance to grow, reflect, and find a team where I can make an even bigger impact," he added.

Another IIT Guwahati pass-out from the same batch, Raman Pal, on August 4, posted on his wall, "I was informed that my software engineer role at ClearTax has been revoked, just two months after joining, due to broader business decisions in a recent company-wide layoff. Unfortunately, this impacted all newly onboarded freshers."

A Clear spokesperson told Outlook Business,"We recently undertook a broader strategic organisational restructuring, impacting around 16% of our workforce, including a small number of early-career employees. To support them, we have extended enhanced severance packages, continued health insurance, and active outplacement assistance through outreach to industry partners."

As per Tracxn, Clear has 844 employees.

This is not the first time Clear, which was co-founded by Archit Gupta in 2014, has mass-fired workers. In 2022, the firm fired around 20% of its workforce across departments, including tech, product, sales, and support teams. An Entrackr report claimed that the company is facing a cash crunch.

According to data from Tracxn, Clear's last funding round was led by Aparna Chennapragada, Surojit Chatterjee, and Balaji Srinivasan, though the amount was not disclosed. Earlier, Clear raised $75 million in a Series C round from institutional investor Think Investments and corporate investors Kora, Stripe, and Alua Capital Management in 2021.

Clear's other investors include Composite Capital Management, Y Combinator, PayPal, Max Levchin, Scott Banister, angel investor Ryan Petersen, Elevation Capital, Paytm, and FundersClub.

The company reported a total income of ₹214.8 crore in FY24, up from ₹114.3 crore in FY23 and ₹60.4 crore in FY22. Its losses also narrowed to ₹96.2 crore in FY24 from ₹233.5 crore in the previous year. Its total liabilities stood at ₹114.1 crore in FY24. The company is yet to file FY25 financials.