Kunal Shah's CRED Sees Valuation Nearly Double In Six Months To $4 Billion

Kunal Shah-promoted CRED, a platform for credit card bill payments and rewards, has seen its valuation nearly double over six months.

The company confirmed that it has raised a series E investment round of $251 million from existing and new investors. The round values the company at $4.01 billion compared with $2.2 billion at the time of its April fundraise.

The round was co-led by existing investors Tiger Global Management and Falcon Edge Capital, the company said. Two new investors—Marshall Wace and Steadfast Venture Capital—also invested as part of the round, it added.

Indian fintech firms have raised over $2 billion in funding in just the first half of the year, according to KPMG's Pulse of Fintech report. That's comparable with the money raised through the course of 2020.

Valuations have also risen significantly this year, with a number of firms, including CRED, turning unicorns with valuations of over a billion dollars each.

CRED, which started out as a platform to facilitate credit-card payments and incentivise timely payments using rewards, has been expanding into new areas.

The company has pushed rent payments on credit cards through its platform and also offered credit lines to its members via tie-ups with non-bank lenders and banks. Most recently, it launched a peer-to-peer network of lenders and borrowers via its ecosystem in collaboration with LiquiLoans, a Reserve Bank of India registered P2P non-bank lender.