Cred
“Can a rewards-driven credit card bill payment app become India's financial OS for the affluent creditworthy?”
Founded2018
HQBangalore, Karnataka, India
FoundersKunal Shah
Total raised~$1B+ (cumulative through 2022)
Latest roundSeries F / secondary (2022-2023)
Valuation$6.4B (2022)
IndustryFintech / Consumer banking
The story
Founded 2018 as a reward-driven credit card bill payment app for India's high-credit-score consumers. Expanded into UPI payments (TPAP), e-commerce checkout (CRED Pay), and lending via partner banks/NBFCs (CRED Cash). Acquired its own NBFC license via Parfait/Newtap Finance to move from pure distribution to a balance-sheet lender. Continues to position itself as a premium members-only club rather than a mass-market neobank.
Last 12 months
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Product timeline
2018
Founded by Kunal Shah as a credit card bill payment rewards app· launch
2021
Raised Series D at $2.2B valuation; launched CRED Pay and CRED Cash (lending)· lending
2021
Acquired Happay (expense management) and HipBar (liquor delivery / Dreampurse wallet)· acquisition
2022
Acquired CreditVidya (alternate credit scoring); valued at $6.4B· acquisition
2022
Launched CRED UPI and scan & pay; became RBI-approved Third Party Application Provider (TPAP)· banking
2023
Acquired Parfait Finance (renamed Newtap Finance) to bring lending in-house via own NBFC· lending
2024
Launched CRED Garage (vehicle management), CRED Mint (P2P investing via Liquiloans), CRED Money· launch
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Cred
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Cred’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
CRED Pay (self-operated)UPI via TPAP (self-operated)
Lending
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
4 more providers across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.