Fintech startup CRED is in the midst of raising $200 million from a clutch of investors as part of its Series D round, which will likely value to the credit card rewards marketplace at $2 billion, according to reports by Tech Crunch and Times of India. The two-year old startup will be the second fastest Indian company to become a unicorn, in 29 months, after B2B e-c0mmerce platform Udaan.
In January this year, CRED raised 81 million as part of its Series C round at a valuation of $800 million. According to the reports, existing investors like DST Global, Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, General Catalyst and a new investor, will participate in the Series D round.
Founded by serial payments entrepreneur Kunal Shah two years ago, CRED began as an exclusive credit card repayment service through which members would receive cashbacks and discounts for using the app to repay EMIs. Eventually it opened itself to credit card users with high credit scores and now includes 1,300 brands/merchants. It also rolled out two credit products last year. While CRED RentPay allows users to pay recurring expenses and bills as well as rent on the credit card, CRED Cash offers an instant credit line.
The company says it has 5.9 million users and processes 20% of all credit card bill payments in India. “Over 35% of premium credit card holders in India are on CRED, with members spending 2X of the average credit card user in India. This premium member base has made CRED an attractive proposition for hundreds of merchants and financial institutions intending to engage the creditworthy community,” it said in a statement.
Effectively, CRED is a marketplace that cross-sells goods and services from merchant partners in return for a cut, or financial services like loans where it gets a fee from lenders. Users who become part of the CRED community can repay their credit card bills via the app and in return get rewards in the form of merchant discounts.
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