CRED raises USD 251mn in Series E at USD 4 billion valuation

Fintech firm CRED has raised USD $251 million in a Series E investment doubling its valuation at $4.01 billion. The fresh round was co-led by existing investors Tiger Global and Falcon Edge. London-based Marshall Wace and Steadfast Venture Capital also participated in this round and so did existing investors DST Global, Insight Partners, Coatue, Sofina, RTP, and Dragonee. Notably, this is the second fundraise from Kunal Shah-led startup within six months. CRED was valued at $2.2 billion in April, when it raised $215 million in a Series D round.




According to The Livemint, the Bengaluru-headquartered company will use the funds to grow its existing range of products and expand financial services offerings for customers, said one of the people quoted above.

“CRED is fortunate to have consistent inbound interest owing to the value created for investors and team. However, the information that Cred is looking to raise another round is wrong,” the company said in an emailed response to Mint’s queries.

Founded in 2018, CRED started off as a credit card bill payments app. Over the years, it has entered e-commerce, lending, payments and now investment segments. The platform rewards its members for clearing their credit card bills on time. With over 1,300 brand partners, CRED claims to have a customer base of 7.5 million and 20% share of all credit card bill payments in India. CRED has raised an aggregate amount of $547 million from a bunch of investors this year, diversifying its financial services portfolio simultaneously to target the underserved market in India.

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The fintech sector in India has seen heavy capital deployment this year. In the first three quarters of 2021, investments worth USD 4.6 billion in the FinTech space were recorded, which is an increase of approximately three times from USD 1.6 billion in 2020. Investments worth USD 2.5 billion for 53 deals closed in the FinTech segment were recorded in the third quarter of CY21 alone across various stages of investment, it said. Approximately 84 per cent of the funding activity was driven by growth and late-stage deals.