Fintech unicorn Cred on Monday said that it has raised $900 million (about ₹8,550 crore) in a Series H funding round led by Meta. The investment will give Meta a roughly 20 per cent stake in the Bengaluru-based fintech startup. Meta’s investment takes Cred’s valuation to $4.5 billion.
What is Cred?
Founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah, Cred is an app-based fintech platform that lets customers make their credit card payments through its app and rewards them for paying bills on time.
The platform operates a members-only financial rewards programme that targets users with high credit scores (at least over 750) and offers them rewards, discounts, cashback and exclusive benefits in exchange for timely bill payments.
The platform also works as a personal credit management tool, helping users track multiple credit cards in one place, monitor their spending patterns, receive due-date reminders, and analyse credit score trends.
Over time, Cred expanded beyond credit-card bill payments into lending, UPI payments, insurance, wealth management and lifestyle services, building a user base of around 17 million monthly active users. According to Reuters, the company also processes more than 40 per cent of India’s credit card bill payments, making it a dominant player in a niche but lucrative segment of the financial services market. It also manages over ₹24,000 crore of lending assets for partner financial institutions.
A look at Cred’s financials
In April 2021, two and a half years after it was founded, Cred became a unicorn after a Series D round of funding of $215 million took its valuation to $2.2 billion. The fintech startup reached its peak valuation of $6.4 billion a year later.
However, Cred has remained a loss-making startup since its inception.
In FY25, the fintech unicorn reported operating revenue of ₹2,735 crore, up 16 per cent from the previous year. At the same time, its operating losses narrowed by more than half to ₹298 crore. It reported gross margins of around 70 per cent during the year.
While it remained in the red on a net basis, total losses declined 11.5 per cent year-on-year to ₹1,457 crore, including non-operating expenses such as employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) costs and depreciation. While announcing its FY25 results, Cred said it is eyeing full profitability in FY26.
Why is Meta interested in Cred?
While WhatsApp is India’s largest messaging platform with more than 500 million users, the penetration of WhatsApp Pay remains relatively low, accounting for less than 0.4 per cent of the country’s UPI transaction volume.
Cred’s numbers tell a story of a fintech platform that has successfully built a highly engaged base of affluent consumers.
Even though Meta is not taking a board seat in Cred and will not receive access to the company’s customer data, the investment gives the social media giant exposure to one of India’s fastest-growing fintech platforms.