Kunal Shah’s Cred has raised $120 million (nearly Rs 861.39 crores) in its ongoing series B round. Kunal Shah has confirmed the news to the media but refused to divulge any financial details about the deal.
According to Cred’s latest regulatory filings, existing investors Ribbit Capital, Gemini Investments and Sequoia Capital led the round. Tiger Global, Hillhouse Capital, General Catalyst, Greenoaks Capital and Dragoneer also participated in the round. The latest funding round has propelled the Bengaluru based startup’s market valuation to almost $450 Mn.
Shah told Yourstory that the funds will be used for international expansion and create new products in collaboration with financial institutions.
Cred, which is barely nine months old, aims to make people responsible with regards to their credit card payments. It does this by incentivizing the members for paying their credit card payments on time. These incentives mainly constitute of gems and coins that can be redeemed on on-line shopping websites, movie theaters and other recreational places.
The company has already tied up with BookMyShow, Urban Ladder, Airbnb and CureFit for implementing its incentive schemes. Prominent banks like HDFC, ICICI, Kotak and Axis have also collaborated with the company.
Cred is currently members only app. Despite the fact that India has only 50 Mn credit card users, Shah is optimistic that his company will be reaping handsome profit.
Shah must be deriving lot of confidence and inspiration from its past track record. He was the founder and CEO of Fintech startup FreeCharge, which was acquired by Snapdeal for whopping $450 Mn in 2015. This deal is still considered as one of the biggest acquisition deals in India’s startup ecosystem.
Although post-acquisition FreeCharge floundered after failing to compete with Alibaba backed Paytm, the deal certainly made Shah a household name and one of the poster boys of India’s startup ecosystem.