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§ Private Profile · London, United Kingdom
Fintech platform for high-credit-score individuals in India, offering credit card bill payments, rewards, and financial products.
CRED is a Bangalore, India-based fintech platform that provides a members-only application for high-credit-score individuals to manage and pay their credit card bills in exchange for financial rewards. The company processes approximately one-third of all credit card bill payments by value in the Indian market and currently serves a growing user base of over five million customers. In June 2023, the enterprise raised $140 million in venture funding, reaching a post-money valuation of $6.4 billion, while reporting a fiscal year 2023 revenue of roughly $178 million. Backed by prominent institutional investors including DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and Ribbit Capital, the firm has expanded its core product suite to include instant credit lines, e-commerce checkouts, and wealth management services following its 2024 acquisition of Kuvera. CRED was officially founded in April 2018 by entrepreneur Kunal Shah.
CRED has raised $881.1M across 8 funding rounds.
Key people at CRED.
CRED was founded in 2023 by Kunal Shah (Founder).
CRED has raised $881.1M in total across 8 funding rounds.
CRED has raised $881.1M across 8 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $15.0M Seed in June 2025.
| Date | Company | Round | Lead Investor(s) | Co-Investor(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 1, 2023 | Crib | $2.0M Seed | Brij Singh, Neeraj Tyagi | Blume Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Ankur Aggarwal, Ghazal Alagh, Kunal Shah, Ramakant Sharma, Ravi Bhushan, Sandeep Aggarwal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Faad Network, Imperier Holdings, Mamaearth, Paytm, Rogue Opportunities |
CRED is an Indian fintech company founded in 2018 in Bangalore, offering a reward-based mobile app for credit card bill payments targeted at users with high credit scores.[1][3] It serves creditworthy consumers by enabling secure bill payments, credit score tracking, and additional services like CRED Cash (instant loans), CRED Mint (investments), and CRED RentPay (rent payments), solving pain points in credit management, timely payments, and financial rewards while earning revenue from commissions, fees, and partnerships.[1][2][7] With 13 million monthly active users as of 2024, ₹1,484 crore revenue in FY23, and a $6.4 billion valuation, CRED processes about 20% of India's credit card payments and has strong growth momentum through acquisitions and funding rounds totaling over $251 million in Series E.[1][2][3][4]
CRED was founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah, previously the founder of FreeCharge (sold to Snapdeal in 2015), who identified a gap in seamless, rewarding credit card management for high-credit-score users in India.[2][3][6] The idea emerged from Shah's fintech experience, aiming to build a high-trust ecosystem for bill payments amid rising credit card adoption.[2] Early traction came from aggressive marketing, including IPL sponsorships from 2020-2023, growing to 5.9 million users by 2021 despite initial losses from ad spends; pivotal moments include $80 million Series F funding in 2022 valuing it at $6.4 billion and acquisitions like Happay (2021), Kuvera (2024), and Spenny (2023).[3][4]
CRED rides India's booming digital payments wave, with the credit card market at ₹9.13 lakh crore ($110 billion) in 2024, projected to hit ₹35 lakh crore ($420 billion) by 2029, fueled by UPI growth (1% market share for CRED) and rising financial inclusion.[3][4] Timing aligns with post-demonetization fintech surge and smartphone penetration, enabling credit expansion for underserved high-potentials; market forces like regulatory easing on digital lending favor its model.[4][6] It influences the ecosystem by acquiring startups (e.g., CreditVidya for lending-as-a-service), setting benchmarks for reward-driven fintech, and normalizing premium credit tools, though criticized for high marketing costs and valuation risks.[3][5]
CRED's trajectory points to deeper super-app evolution, blending payments, lending, investments, and lifestyle perks to capture more of India's $420 billion credit market by 2029.[4] Trends like AI-driven credit scoring, UPI-credit hybrids, and wealth tech integrations (post-Kuvera) will shape growth, potentially boosting MAUs beyond 13 million via international tweaks or B2B expansions.[1][3] Influence may grow as a consolidator in fragmented fintech, but sustaining profitability amid competition from Paytm requires balancing rewards with monetization; if it nails data-led personalization, CRED could redefine premium fintech for emerging markets, echoing its origins as a trust-first payments innovator.[2][4][5]
Key people at CRED.
CRED was founded in 2023 by Kunal Shah (Founder).
CRED has raised $881.1M in total across 8 funding rounds.
CRED's investors include Defy Partners, Alumni Ventures, DST Global, Kearny Jackson, rocketship.vc, Zigg Capital, Akshay Kothari, Ameet Patel, Amit Mital, Gokul Rajaram, Kunal Shah, Nami Zarringhalam.
