Revenue Strategy and Operations Manager

Israeli fintech company April has announced the completion of a $38 million Series B financing round led QED Investors with participation from existing investors Euclidean Capital, iAngels, NYCA, Team8, Transpose, Treasury, and new investors, Industry Ventures.

While death and taxes are the only guarantees in life, paying to file taxes is up there as a near certainty.According to page 107 of the 2024 Form 1040 instructions, the average cost of filing a basic federal 1040 tax return was $160 for a non-business taxpayer in 2023.In addition, the Tax Foundation estimated that total tax compliance costs — including fees, lost productivity and out-of-pocket expenses — cost American taxpayers over $546 billion each year, or 1.9% of the U.S. GDP.In a Wednesday (Jan. 8) press release from digital banking platform Chime, the company announced all new and existing members can file their federal and state taxes directly within the Chime app at no cost, bypassing the costs associated with using third-party software or traditional tax preparation services.“When Chime members e-file their taxes through Chime in partnership with [tax filing FinTechs] april and Column Tax, filing is completely free,” the release said.According to the release, “a successful pilot program” that began in 2023 led to the launch of free in-app tax filing for all Chime members.Chime’s chief product officer, Madhu Muthukumar, commented in the release: “Getting your money back from the government shouldn’t cost you money. By providing completely free in-app tax filing, we’re empowering Americans to unlock their financial progress confidently, making tax season easier and more rewarding.”Some additional highlights of the program being touted by Chime are that members can receive their federal tax refunds up to “six days early” with direct deposit into their Chime accounts and filing in “under 24 minutes.”PYMNTS reported that Chime Financial submitted a confidential filing for an IPO in December, and could possibly go public sometime this year. The company declined to comment.Another PYMNTS report focusing on this year’s FinTech IPO outlook noted that the climate seems right for several FinTech players to go public and see if investors take notice. The FinTech IPO Index is up more than 58% through the previous year

The first AI-powered tax-filing product built to be embedded with financial services providers, april strengthens leadership with the appointment of Raj R.Doshi as its President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). Doshi brings over 20 years of experience in driving growth strategies and leading operations across prominent organizations including Google, TaxAct and Avantax. april has already integrated into over 20 fintech platforms, including industry leaders such as Chime, Dayforce, and Gusto. april continues to add industry veterans to its leadership roster; just last year, Christina Taylor, who previously led tax operations at Credit Karma Tax and Cash App Taxes, joined april to lead tax development and delivery. With april poised to become the first new national e-file provider in 15 years, Doshi’s focus will be to scale the company’s embedded partnership model and expand april’s reach, further solidifying the company’s position as a leader in innovative tax solutions.Prior to joining april, Doshi served as the Chief Growth and Marketing Officer at Blucora, where he co-owned revenue responsibility for TaxAct and Avantax, one of the largest DIY tax providers and a Top 10 broker-dealer respectively. Under his leadership, he created and implemented transformative go-to-market strategies, built and scaled cross-functional teams, and structured and executed complex partnerships