Yesterday, we reported that Indian startups raised over $10 billion in the third quarter of the year, which is a record in itself. Now, as the final quarter of 2021 has started, it looks like things are far from over as fintech start-up CRED has now raised $251 million in its Series E funding round, co-led by Tiger Global Management and Falcon Edge Capital, putting it at a valuation of $4.01 billion.
The funding round also included participation from London-based Marshall Wace and Steadfast Venture Capital as well as existing investors DST Global, Insight Partners, Coatue, Dragoneer, and Sofina. CRED was last valued at $2.2 billion back in April. Thus, this is a sign of the unprecedented growth of the Indian startup ecosystem this year. CRED itself has raised over $500 million from investors in the last 12 months.
CRED caters to some of the most premium audiences and offers a range of premium brands.
The three-year-old startup aims to use the proceeds from the funding round to expand its range of products and financial services offerings for customers. It helps people easily pay credit card bills on time and earn rewards. It has come a long way since its inception and has over 7.5 million users. It aims to become a full-fledged financial services provider and provides various services such as CRED Cash, which provides a flexible credit line of up to Rs 5,00,000 to users, with interest rates ranging from 12% to 15%, and partners with non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) such as IDFC First Bank.
Its CRED Mint is a peer-to-peer investment product from where CRED users can lend money to other members and earn interest of up to 9% per annum. Additionally, CRED Pay marked its advent into the D2C and e-commerce vertical – CRED Pay allows users to use their CRED reward coins across e-commerce sites and unlock discounts.
