Zerodha’s Rainmatter Capital invests $300,000 in online tax platform Quicko

Quicko Infosoft, which provides online taxation services, has raised $300,000 in a seed round from Rainmatter Capital, an incubator which invests in fintech startups. With this, Rainmatter Capital has invested in four startups this year. 

Rainmatter Capital, sponsored by online brokerage Zerodha, in September, invested $600,000 in Finception, which publishes digital content on finance-related developments for millenials. In July, it invested $1 million in commodities procurement platform Procol, along with early-stage venture capital firm Blume Ventures.  

In June, Rainmatter also participated in StreakAI Technologies’ $1 million funding round led by early-stage venture capital fund 3One4 Capital. In 2017, the retail investor platform raised $0.4 million in a seed round from Rainmatter.

Through the investment, Zerodha will offer tax solutions to brokers registered on its platform, said a statement.

“Traders are generally confused about their tax calculations. Taxes on trading can get tricky sometimes as the rules vary depending on asset class such as real estate, equity, derivative,  turnover limits and applicability of tax audit,” Nithin Kamath, Founder and CEO of Zerodha said in a statement.

Founded by Vishvajit Sonagara, Quicko provides income tax filing services to resident and non-resident taxpayers. Salaried individuals can upload Form 16, review and quickly file returns. 

The platform also helps stock traders figure the right tax forms, the applicability of tax audit, due dates, and file tax returns including profit & loss statement and balance sheet. The platform claims to have on-boarded more than 50,000 taxpayers. 

Quicko will use the funds to onboard more traders on its platform. There are over 85 lakh traders in India, in the age group of 25-35, who are its potential customers. The company is also in talks with three-four brokerages to bring their clients on its platform, Sonagara said. 

“We want to encourage more people to file their tax return by simplifying the tax filing process. Our mission is to simplify taxes for everyone and we have built our platform for Individuals & businesses across India keeping this in mind. We are very excited to partner with Zerodha to simplify tax filing for traders,” he added.

Sonagara has previously worked at financial services Fidelity, German lender Deutsche Bank and media conglomerate Thomson Reuters.

Quicko competes with Bengaluru-based financial technology firm ClearTax, which provides solutions on income tax, Goods and Services Tax and mutual fund investments. ClearTax is backed by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India, SAIF Partners, Y Combinator and Composite Capital.