CRED Hires Sujay Das To Lead Risk For In-House NBFC

Fintech unicorn Cred has hired banking veteran Sujay Das to lead the risk side of its in-house non-banking financial company (NBFC) Newtap Finance in yet another move to strengthen its lending play.

Das, who is currently working with fintech startup Freo, brings around 15 years of underwriting and risk assessment experience with financial organisations such as HSBC Bank and Bajaj Finance.

Per an ET report, Das is likely to join CRED very soon, with one source cited as saying that he has already left Freo.

The development comes months after it was widely reported that Newtap was looking for a new CEO as the NBFC looked to gear up for a funding round worth around $50 Mn – $70 Mn.

The fintech giant is also looking to scale up unsecured products such as personal loans and consumer durables loans. CRED will start with unsecured loans before moving onto secured loans, the person added.

However, CRED’s ambitions received a setback in August when the fintech unicorn was blocked by the Reserve Bank of India, (RBI) from buying any further stake in Newtap Finance. The block means that for now, Newtap remains an independent entity owned by Kunal Shah.

Even so, the fintech major has managed to gather all the ingredients to build a lending layer. It acquired CreditVidya in November 2022, which operates Prefr, a digital lending platform that has developed underwriting and risk assessment models crucial for a lending product.

Newtap gives CRED access to an NBFC, and by extension, a banking licence which can be used for lending activity. Currently, the fintech major partners with other NBFCs such as IDFC First Bank, Liquiloans and Credit Saison to offer personal loans.

Das’ reported appointment also comes three months after CRED hired financial services industry veteran B Sriram as an independent director on its board. Sriram brings an experience of over 40 years in domains such as banking, finance and technology.