Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 7, 2026

Cred (company)

CRED, legally known as Dreamplug Technologies Private Limited, is an Indian financial technology company headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah, the company operates a platform for credit card bill payments, lending, and other payment services.

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Jul 7, 2026
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CRED
CRED
TypePrivate
Industry
Founded2018 (2018)
FounderKunal Shah
HeadquartersBangalore, Karnataka,
India
Key people
Kunal Shah (Founder)
Miten Sampat (CEO)2
RevenueIncrease ₹2,735 crore (US$290 million) (FY25)3
Negative increase ₹−1,457 crore (US$−150 million) (FY25)3
Number of employees
1,056 (2026)
Websitecred.club

CRED, legally known as Dreamplug Technologies Private Limited, is an Indian financial technology company headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka.456 Founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah,78 the company operates a platform for credit card bill payments, lending, and other payment services.910

As of 2026, the company was valued at around US$4.5 billion.11

History

Cred was started in 2018 by Kunal Shah. Cred posted losses of ₹360.31 crore in fiscal year 2020,12 caused primarily due to high expenditure on marketing and advertising.13 By 2021, the company reported having 5.9 million users.14

In March 2026, Cred received authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a payment aggregator. At the time, the company and its subsidiaries also held licences and registrations from the Reserve Bank of India, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and the National Payments Corporation of India.15

Products and services

In July 2024, Cred launched Cred Money, a financial services platform based on India's Account Aggregator framework.16

In August 2024, the company became a certified customer operating unit (COU) on the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS).17

In November 2024, Cred entered the motor insurance distribution business through its Cred Garage platform under a corporate agency licence issued by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).18

In September 2025, the company expanded Cred Money to include investment products such as fixed deposits, gold investments, and portfolio management services.19

In March 2026, Cred introduced biometric authentication for eligible Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions.20

Partnerships

In May 2022, Cred partnered with Mastercard to enable rent and education-related payments for Mastercard credit cardholders through the Cred app.21 In August 2024, the company partnered with L&T Finance to offer unsecured personal loans through its CRED Cash product.22 In August 2025, Cred partnered with Razorpay and Visa to launch “CardSync”, a payment solution based on card tokenization23 In September 2025, Cred partnered with IndusInd Bank to launch a co-branded RuPay credit card.24

Acquisitions

In 2021, Cred acquired expense management startup Happay and a liquor delivery startup HipBar.25

In December 2021, the company acquired the expense management platform Happay in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately US$180 million.26 In November 2024, the company sold Happay to MakeMyTrip for an undisclosed amount.2728

In September 2022, Cred acquired a minority stake in NDX P2P Private Limited, the parent company of LiquiLoans, a peer-to-peer lending platform.29

In December 2022, the company acquired a 100% stake in CreditVidya that offers lending as a service to customers who do not have a credit score.25

In July 2023, Cred acquired savings and investment platform Spenny.30 In February 2024, the company acquired online wealth management and mutual funds startup Kuvera for an undisclosed amount.31

Funding

Cred raised funding from DST Global,32 Sequoia Capital (India),3334 and Tiger Global,35 among other investors, through the four rounds of private funding so far.36

In October 2021, Cred started to seek new investors, reporting a $5.5 billion valuation, up from $2.2 billion recorded in April 2021.3738

In June 2022, CRED raised $80 million in a Series F funding round led by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC, valuing the company at around $6.4 billion.39

In June 2026, CRED raised $900 million in a funding round led by Meta. The investment valued the company at about $4.5 billion and gave Meta a minority stake in the company.40

Investor Transaction name Fund raised41 Valuation
Sequoia Capital India Seed $30 million Undisclosed
Sequoia Capital, RTP Ventures, and 25 others Series A $636,000
Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, and seven others Series B $120 million Increase $450 million
DST Global, Tiger Global Management, and seven others Series C $81 million Increase $806 million
Coatue, Insight Partners, and nine others Series D $215 million Increase $2.2 billion
Tiger Global Management, Marshall Wace, and eight others Series E $251 million Increase $4.01 billion
GIC Singapore, Tiger Global Management, and three others Series F $80 million Increase $6.4 billion
Lathe Investment, RTP Global, Sofina, and QED Innovation Labs Series G $72 million42
Meta Platforms Series H $900 million Decrease $4.5 billion

Marketing and reception

Cred became the official sponsor for the Indian Premier League for four years from 2020 to 2023.43 In 2021, Cred's advertising content and videos, made in-house featuring Indian celebrities,444546 generated significant discourse in news and social media47484950 due to its peculiarity, which was both criticized51 and praised. Cred has received criticism for being overvalued and lacking a sound monetization strategy.5253

References

References

  1. Anupam, Suprita (28 August 2024). "CRED's Super App Revenue Stack". Inc42. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
  2. Anand, Akriti (22 June 2026). "Who is Miten Sampat? Meet CRED's interim CEO as Kunal Shah joins META | Company Business News". Mint. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
  3. Manchanada, Kunal (30 January 2026). "CRED reports Rs 2,735 Cr revenue in FY25; operating losses fall 51%". Entrackr.com.
  4. "Kunal Shah's CRED raises $215 million to be India's latest unicorn with a valuation of $2.2 billion". Business Insider. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  5. "Kunal Shah's Cred turns unicorn in less than three years; valuation slingshots nearly 3X to $2.2 billion". The Financial Express. 6 April 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  6. "Cred valued at $2.2 billion with new round, Kunal Shah says 'conscious call' to not monetise in first 2 years". cnbctv18.com. 6 April 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  7. Patwa, Prasannata (26 November 2018). "Cred to launch product for credit card users". mint. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  8. Gooptu, Biswarup; Sharma, Samidha. "Kunal Shah: FreeCharge's Kunal Shah is back with Fintech firm Cred". The Economic Times. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  9. Bajaj, Karan. "Cred review: Makes credit card bill payments easier, rewards for timely transaction". The Economic Times. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  10. Staff (20 April 2020). "Cred Rentpay, Stash services launched in India". BGR India. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  11. Goenka, Tushar; R Srikanth, Chandra (19 June 2026). "Meta in talks to invest in Kunal Shah's Cred".
  12. Vardhan, Jai; Tyagi, Gaurav (6 February 2021). "Kunal Shah's CRED spent Rs 727 to earn a rupee in FY20". Entrackr. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  13. "Big Spender CRED Banks On Rent Payments, Credit Lines For Revenue". BloombergQuint. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  14. J, Anand (11 June 2024). "Cred's new-user growth by 2024". Moneycontrol.
  15. "CRED gets RBI nod to operate as payment aggregator". The Economic Times. 11 March 2026. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  16. Singh, Manish (25 July 2024). "CRED launches personal finance manager for India's affluent". TechCrunch. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
  17. Singh, Amit (23 August 2024). "CRED Enables Easy Credit Card Bill Payments Via BBPS". Inc42 Media. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
  18. "Cred rolls into insurance space via Garage platform". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 4 November 2024. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
  19. Choudhary, Lokesh (15 September 2025). "CRED Adds Gold, Credit Card, Members-Only 'Sovereign' Club To Its Super App". Inc42 Media. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
  20. "Cred introduces biometric authentication for UPI payments up to Rs 5,000". The Economic Times. 25 March 2026. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
  21. "Mastercard, CRED partner to enable seamless high value payments via credit cards - BusinessToday". Business Today. 9 May 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  22. Inc42, Team (20 August 2024). "CRED Partners L&T Finance To Offer Unsecured Personal Loans". Inc42 Media. Retrieved 2 June 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. "Razorpay partners with CRED, Visa for CardSync payment solution to enable one-tap payments across online stores". The Times of India. 6 August 2025. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  24. "CRED Partners with IndusInd Bank to Launch RuPay Credit Card". www.financeoutlookindia.com. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  25. "Cred to acquire lending-as-a-service firm CreditVidya". mint. 29 November 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  26. Mundhra, Laxitha (1 December 2021). "CRED Acquires Corporate Expense Management Startup Happay At $180 Mn Valuation". Inc42 Media. Retrieved 20 June 2026.
  27. Singh, Manish (18 November 2024). "MakeMyTrip buys Happay from CRED". TechCrunch. Retrieved 20 June 2026.
  28. Shekhar, Roshni (18 November 2024). "MakeMyTrip to acquire Happay's expense management platform from CRED". Business Standard. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
  29. Kaur, Jaspreet (16 September 2022). "Fintech Unicorn CRED To Invest $10 Mn In P2P Lending Platform LiquiLoans". Inc42 Media. Retrieved 20 June 2026.
  30. "CRED acquihires savings platform Spenny". Moneycontrol. 23 June 2023. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  31. Banthia, Jyoti (6 February 2024). "CRED to acquire Kuvera for undisclosed amount". BusinessLine. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  32. "Cred raises $80 million in a funding round led by DST Global, valuation now up at $800 million". Firstpost. 2 December 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  33. "VC firm Sequoia Capital closes second seed fund at $195 million to back startups in India, Southeast Asia". The Financial Express. 25 March 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  34. Srikanth, Chandra R (6 April 2021). "Cred Turns Unicorn, Raises $215 Million At A Valuation Of $2.2 Billion". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  35. "Kunal Shah's Cred Raises $120 Mn Series B Funding From Ribbit, Tiger Global And Others". Inc42 Media. 26 August 2019. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  36. "India's CRED in talks to raise $200 million at $2 billion valuation". TechCrunch. 15 March 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  37. Singh, Manesh (11 October 2021). "Indian fintech CRED seeks funds at $5.5 billion valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  38. Manikandan, Ashwin. "Cred's valuation soars to $2.2 billion after fresh funding". The Economic Times. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  39. Ritu, Singh (27 May 2025). "CRED eyes $75 million fresh funding led by GIC amid 45% valuation drop". cnbctv18. Retrieved 27 May 2025.
  40. Mehta, Chavi (22 June 2026). "Indian fintech firm CRED to raise $900 million from Meta at $4.5 billion valuation". Reuters. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
  41. "Exclusive: CRED in talks to raise funding, eyes $6.5 bn valuation". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  42. "Cred raises fresh funds from GIC, others; valuation cut by 45% to $3.5 billion". The Economic Times. 10 June 2025. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 20 June 2026.
  43. "After Unacademy, Cred Joins IPL 2020 As Official Partner". Inc42 Media. 2 September 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  44. www.ETBrandEquity.com. "CRED launches 90s inspired multi-film campaign featuring Anil Kapoor – ET BrandEquity". ETBrandEquity.com. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  45. Bhatt, Shephali. "Who made Bappi Da sing love ballads for credit cards?". The Economic Times. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  46. Misra, Shubhangi (1 November 2020). "With Bappi Lahiri to Govinda, India's ad industry is laughing at itself. Not everyone gets why". ThePrint. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  47. "Is self-ridicule the new ad formula?". Deccan Herald. 7 November 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  48. "Govinda's New CRED Ad: Here's Why the Dancing Superstar Said Yes". Latest Odisha News, Breaking News Today | Top Updates on Corona – OTV News. 29 October 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  49. www.ETBrandEquity.com. "Jim Sarbh engages with audience in Cred's new ad film – ET BrandEquity". ETBrandEquity.com. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  50. "CRED in the Indian Premier League (IPL): sixer or hit wicket?". The Ken. 14 October 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  51. www.ETBrandEquity.com. "Opinion: First you pay them, then you mock them? – ET BrandEquity". ETBrandEquity.com. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  52. Dalal, Mihir (4 February 2021). "Forgive us for asking, but what's Cred's business model?". mint. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  53. "Worth $806 mn, Cred's Rs 52-lakh revenue sparks valuation, business model debate". cnbctv18.com. 8 February 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
Further reading

Further reading

External links