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FreeCharge Founder’s New Venture Cred Wants To Reward Good Credit Behaviour

FreeCharge founder, Kunal Shah, opens up about his new venture Cred



A customer uses a HSBC Holdings Plc Visa Inc. credit card to make a contactless payment, using a Verifone Systems Inc. payment device at a restaurant (Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg)
A customer uses a HSBC Holdings Plc Visa Inc. credit card to make a contactless payment, using a Verifone Systems Inc. payment device at a restaurant (Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg)

FreeCharge founder Kunal Shah is back with a new venture that incentivises customers paying their credit card bills in time.

Christened Cred, the startup currently targets consumers with high credit scores, allows users to pay their credit card bills and rewards them with “Cred Coins”. “The idea is to incentivise users who have good financial behavior,” Shah told BloombergQuint in an interview. “People have poor credit score because there is lack of awareness about it, and also there are better benefits of having a good credit score.”

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Shah spent a year with the venture capital firms Y Combinator and Sequoia Capital after he stepped down as the chief executive officer of the digital payment platform he founded. He said that he evaluated sectors such as healthcare and education before finalising Cred. The startup, which is in its beta phase, has partnered with over 30 brands, including Uber Eats, Sunburn, CureFit, Ixigo, among others. “It already has a pipeline of 100 brands.”

He said that the firm aims to generate money by cross-selling and upselling products such as insurance. “The idea is to create a platform where other products, (and) not just financial services, could be offered,” he said, adding that they aim to make money from marketing. “In India it’s impossible to now make money on payments, the margins are close to nothing.”

Watch the full interview here: