This startup just raised funding to make life easier for Indian taxpayers

Photo credit: Pixabay.

This month is income tax month in India (collective groan). Back in my more naive college days, I remember lamenting to my journalism advisor that I wish I knew enough about my taxes to be able to navigate them myself.

His response: “When you’re sick, you go to a doctor. You don’t take care of that yourself, so why do you expect to take care of your taxes yourself?”

Income taxes suck. They suck even more if you’re left to do them yourself. Sure, the government has an online form that’s supposed to help, but if that was so easy, why do we have a whole profession dedicated to helping people navigate those forms?

Sites like Taxsmile and myITreturn have tried to take off some of the heat from tax filers. For the past few months Y Combinator-backed ClearTax has been making waves. This year, it’s raised US$15.3 million.

Software is not just technology.

In response, Abhishek Soni shrugged and got to work. Along with Vertika Kedia and Shishant Todi, he started Jaipur-based Tax2win. Its secret ingredient? Normally, tech startups are headed up by a founder or founder team with tech and/or business experience. Tax2win’s headed up by chartered accountants (CA). Abhishek and Vertika are both CAs by trade, while Shishant brings tech into the picture.

Abhishek believes it’s not enough to build a technology platform – the team needs to have the right kind of experience to enrich the product. “Software is not just technology,” he says.

Today, Tax2win announced that it has raised around US$900,000 in seed funding from an undisclosed business house that has six decades of experience in diversified business. The funds will be put toward product development, team building, and finding Tax2win’s niche in the market.

As part of the deal, a director from the business house has joined the startup’s board.

A taxing process

Abhishek Soni, co-founder of Tax2win.

Abhishek, Verika, and Shishant launched Jaipur-headquartered Tax2win last year, and the startup released the latest version of its site about two months ago. So far, Abhishek says the startup has garnered over 10,000 users since its launch and partnered with over 35 companies.

Abhishek got the idea for an online income tax aid in an aha! moment that he describes as not particularly exciting: his cab driver asked if Abhishek, working on audits for EY (previously Ernst & Young) in Gurgaon, could file his income tax return for him.

Tax filer haven