Making Indians manage and pay their credit card bills on time by luring them with attractive offers was a smart move by the Indian fintech company CRED, short for Credit. CRED easily syncs all your credit cards on its one user-friendly app, helping you manage all the payments on time. Way forward, it has also launched Rent Pay, Cred Cash, and Cred Mint are options for flexible credit lines, house rent payment, and lending idle funds to borrowers with respectable credit scores at interest rates of around 9% annually.
So, what led to the formation of this company, and what was the initial journey like? Let’s read in detail about CRED including its current financial and revenue stats.
What unique services do they provide & how it’s solving real-life issues?
As Indians got comfortable using their credit cards, the problem of managing their payments and managing multiple cards started lurking around the corner. Kunal Shah, the founder of CRED, was aware of the trust issues in Indian society and pledged to solve these by making a credit card payment app that helps users manage their payments easily. Kunal Shah describes CRED as a TrustTech and not as a Fintech company as the company takes utmost care in protecting the data and information of the users.
Kunal often felt that everybody was focusing on the masses and no one was appreciating the efforts of those who paid their taxes on time. He created this app with the goal to create a platform that could make life systematic and better for those with good credit scores. He also provided them with benefits and more privileges encouraging them to continue with their good deeds.
‘If you look at history, nobody has been rewarded for paying back on time. We want to fix that.’
He, therefore, formed CRED with the intention to solve the problems of taxpayers and also reward them.
How the Journey Started?
CRED was born in 2018 in Bangalore. Kunal Shah, the founder of this company was a Philosophy graduate from Wilson College and later completed his MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. He dropped his MBA midway through to pursue his dream of entrepreneurship.
He initially started with PaisaBack, a website offering coupons, cashback, and other offers for users. He shut it down in 2010 to start FreeCharge. He was independently handling the operations of FreeCharge until 2017, until its takeover by Axis Bank in July of the same year. The next year, he launched CRED and took it to unicorn status within 3 years.
What are their Achievements?
CRED has a neat-looking and easy-to-use app that users can browse to avail of various offers once they have paid their credit card bills on time. Cred collaborates with businesses to accomplish this by bringing them on board. It’s a definite plus for the businesses as well as for Cred and its customers, who can take advantage of the special deals offered by the companies.
Cred offers customers that use it to pay their credit card bills a simple and rewarding platform. Cred recently unveiled Cred Mint, a new feature that allows users of the platform to lend their unused funds to other Cred users who are in need of credit. Only reliable Cred members with a minimum credit score of 750 or higher are permitted to be the borrowers in this fairly open process.
Recently, the app launched many other usages like home rent payments and more.
Funding
Over the course of the brand’s 10 funding rounds, Cred has raised a total of $1+ billion in funding. On June 9, 2022, Cred received its most recent $80 million in funding as part of its Series F funding round, which was co-led by GIC and included Sofina Ventures, Alpha Wave Ventures, and DF International.
On April 7, 2022, GIC invested $200 million in the unicorn fintech company’s final venture round. Cred, a brand of Dreamplug Technologies, is estimated to be worth around $6.5 billion as of the most recent round of funding the business has received. According to an assessment made in June 2022, Cred’s value in October 2021 had increased by more than 60% to $4.01 billion.
Revenue
In India, Cred manages 22% of all credit card payments on a monthly basis. In 2022, following a $200 million funding round, Cred’s valuation reached $6.5 billion. The Bengaluru-based business increased its operational revenue to Rs 88.6 crore during FY21 by more than 170X. CRED made Rs 393 crore in revenue in FY22, compared to Rs 88.6 crore generated in FY21.
Cred receives revenue from listing fees that companies pay to have their goods and offers displayed on its app. Cred also gathers financial information about you as you use the app and pay your bills in order to provide you with better offers in the future. Banks and credit card companies pay Cred for access to this data.
What Makes CRED Stand Out?
- Cred, the machine that cranks out hot, trendy ads, is constantly looking for fresh, original, and trendy faces from all walks of life. Neeraj Chopra was cast by them shortly after winning the gold medal at the Olympics, which is a great illustration.
- Cred stands out from other brands that use celebrity endorsements by using celebrity signature moves that the viewers can easily relate to or a personality flip that will keep the audience in awe.
- Advertising that makes the viewer realize the benefits and presents unexpected elements rather than focusing on the brand’s features is effective, and CRED does just that.
Future Plans
Cred recently moved past this revenue model. Cred will begin offering its users pre-approved personal loans in April 2020. The company is gradually adding more Cred users to the select group of users who are currently receiving the feature.
Conclusion
It has become necessary to keep credit cards because of their rising popularity. CRED pounced on the chance and entered the fray. Future monetization opportunities for lending-based services appear to be possible with the data the app may collect.
Cheers to CRED for making our lives so much simpler!
