CRED Raises $251 Mn At $4 Bn Valuation; Marshall Wace & Steadfast Join Captable

Member-only fintech and ecommerce platform CRED, which became a unicorn earlier this year through its Series D round, has raised $251 Mn in its Series E round co-led by Tiger Global and Falcon Edge.

The round values the Kunal Shah-led fintech startup at $4.01 Bn, up from $2.2 Bn in April.

Two new investors, Marshall Wace and Steadfast joined the captable, a company spokesperson told Inc42. Existing investors DST Global, Insight Partners, Coatue, Sofina, RTP, and Dragoneer have increased their investments in CRED with this round.

While the startup hasn’t announced the use of funds, reports suggest that a part of the funds raised has been earmarked for investments and acquisition of fintech startups.

According to a report, CRED is in talks to back fintech startup Uni at a valuation of over $300 Mn.

From Rewards On Use Of Credit Cards To Auxiliary Services Around Credit

Founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah, CRED offers premium credit card users rewards and benefits for paying credit card bills. It has also been eyeing a piece of ancillary services built around its primary ecosystem of credit card-centric services.

In early 2020, it had launched Rent Pay, a service enabling users to pay their monthly rent through credit card. Later, it forayed into ecommerce with CRED Store, where consumers could buy products from Indian and international D2C brands and FMCG companies.

It also launched its digital payment that would convert CRED reward coins across ecommerce sites to shop and unlock discounts.

Recently, it also ventured into peer-to-peer (P2P) lending with a community-driven product — CRED Mint. The startup stated that it would enable members to earn interest on idle money by lending to other high-trust members.

Currently, the startup boasts over 7.5 Mn members, partnerships with 12+ credit card issuers (banks), and a recent $5 Mn investment in the debt recovery platform CredAvenue.

The current round brings the company’s total funds raised to $722 Mn.

The fintech unicorn had previously projected a 208X growth in its operating revenues in FY21 to INR 108 Cr, but it is yet to file profit and loss statements for the year ended March 2021.

In FY20, CRED posted operating revenue of INR 52 Lakhs. The company made more revenue from interest on fixed deposits and current investments than actual revenue from operations. Its total expenses stood at INR 378.39 Cr, an increase of 492% from FY19 when it recorded expenses worth INR 63.90 Cr.

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