Credit repayment startup and app and second venture of Freecharge founder, Kunal Shah is in talks to raise nearly $100 Mn at a valuation ranging from $700 and $800 Mn.
Cred is a mobile application where clients make their credit card payments in lieu of Cred points that can be used for various discounts and offers on the platform. It has partnered with Myntra, Curefit, and Samsung, over time.
Cred’s ad campaign over the IPL has driven its customer engagement, user signing up has increased 6-7 times.
Cred was valued at $450 million in August last year when it raised $120 million in Series A round from a number of top technology investors such as Ribbit Capital, General Catalyst, Greenoaks Capital, Dragoneer Group, and Apoletto Asia- the personal investment vehicle of Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner.
Before this, Cred raised $30 million in a seed-funding round in late 2018, one of the largest seed rounds in Indian startups.
“The valuation can be attributed to their IPL-led growth, but for investors, investing in a second-time founder is seen as a relatively safe bet,” said a person tracking the company, who did not want to be named.
Investors are betting that Cred can monetize its current user base- the country’s most loan-worthy customers with a credit score of 750 and above, and lend to them. Cred doesn’t make any money currently and wants to offer personal loans by partnering with banks and non-banking firms (NBFCs).