CRED, a fintech unicorn, has secured $140 million (Rs 1,089 crore) in additional capital (primary and secondary) from new and existing investors as part of its Series F funding round at a valuation of $6.4B .
Founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah, CRED offers rewards and benefits to premium credit card users for paying credit bills. Later, the company expanded its base into lending ecommerce payments and providing short-term loans through Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) options. Last year, it also forayed into the P2P lending segment.
The platform forayed into corporate finance management by acquiring Happay, which offers all-in-one expense management software for businesses.
According to a regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), the digital payments platform has approved the issuing of 42,308 Series F Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) at an issue price of Rs 145,846.98 per share to raise $80 million.
GIC (through Lathe Investment) led the round with a Rs 467 crore investment, followed by Tiger Global, Sofina Ventures SA, Falcon Edge, and Dragoneer.
This new round values the company at $6.4 billion, up 60% from its prior valuation of $4.01 billion when it obtained a $251 million Series E funding round from current investors in October 2021.
In 2021, the startup raised capital through three rounds—$81 million in its Series C round, $215 million in Series D, and finally, $251 million in Series E.
CRED to foray into Wealth Management
In March 2022, The CapTable had reported about this impending deal and CRED’s plans to foray into wealth management.
CRED’s losses had widened by 45 percent year-on-year to Rs 524 crore for FY 2021, from Rs 360 crore a year ago. The company, however, saw a jump of over 400 percent in revenues—from Rs 18.16 crore in FY20 to Rs 95.53 crore in FY21. Total revenue from operations jumped to Rs 88 crore in FY21 from Rs 52 lakh.
The firm is yet to disclose its financial results for FY22.
On Thursday, NPCI Bharat BillPay, the wholly-owned subsidiary of National Payments Corporation of India announced that it had onboarded CRED as a key agent institution for providing easy bill payment solutions. With the collaboration, CRED users will be able to make recurring bill payments like electricity, telecom, DTH, gas, education fees, water, and municipal taxes more conveniently.
