CRED plans to raise $300Mn at $ 6Bn valuation

A report claims that fintech startup CRED is eyeing to raise $300 million at an aggressive valuation of over $6 billion.

The fresh funding is expected to be led by crossover funds from the Middle East and will also see the company’s existing investors Tiger Global Management and Falcon Edge Capital doubling their bets.

CRED started as an app for India’s credit-worthy individuals to pay their credit card bills and earn points further expanding its base into lending e-commerce payments, advertising for brands, and providing short term loans through Buy Now Pay Later options.

In the last one and a half years, CRED has built a loan book of over Rs 2000 crore, likely with low defaults since it caters to highly credit-worthy customers. Its payments business CRED Pay also processes transactions worth $500 million a year - Gross Merchandise Value on which it doesn't make money yet.

While CRED has rapidly expanded into payments, lending, investment, and commerce, it remains to be seen how it will effectively cross-sell, upsell and monetise each of these engines. Founder Kunal Shah, in a recent tweet, seemed to suggest that CRED should be perceived as a super app, being built like a web series, where one character is introduced at a time and has a connection with previous characters.